Xvi

How it befel?--The overreaching arm, Bombs; and he was among us. In his plan Surprise completed what surprise began. The treacherous shelter of a too-near farm, A ditch along a road, a false alarm, Thirty yards of the open; in the van A desperado running--How he ran!-- And the pack had us. Hands up and disarm! --It is the end of all, the bitter end, The unpardonable, though ineluctable, A breach in life no living now will mend; The sin that sinned not; fell not, yet a fall. One thought burned in the brain: How dear it cost England to gain what I this day have lost!

RASTATT, 1st May