1914] AISNE TO FIBST BATTLE OF YPEES

to a line a little west of Hooge and stand there,
though he well knew that no stand, however heroic,
could save the town. And then suddenly out of
the void came a strange story. A white-faced staff
officer reported that something odd was happening
north of the Menin road. The enemy advance had
halted ! Then came the word that the 1st Division
was re-forming. The anxious generals could scarcely
believe their ears, for it sounded a sheer miracle.
But presently came the proof, though it was not for
months that the full tale was known. Brigadier-
General FitzClarence, commanding the 1st (Guards)
Brigade in the 1st Division, had sent in his last re-
serves and failed to stop the gap. He then rode off
to the headquarters of the division to explain how
desperate was the position. But on the way, at the
south-west corner of the Polygon Wood, he stumbled
upon a battalion waiting in support. It was the
2nd Worcesters, who were part of the right brigade
of the 2nd Division. FitzClarence saw in them his
last chance. They belonged to another division,
but it was no time to stand on ceremony, and the
officer in command at once put them at his disposal.
The Worcesters, under very heavy artillery fire,
advanced in a series of rushes for about a thousand
yards between the right of the South Wales Borderers
and the northern edge of Gheluvelt. Like Cole's
fusiliers at Albuera, they came suddenly and unex-
pectedly upon the foe. There they dug themselves
in, broke up the German advance into bunches,
enfiladed it heavily, and brought it to a standstill.
Before night fell the German advance west of Ghelu-

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