Wytschaete

“ The Germans were taken completely by surprise, and gave way before the impetuous onrush. In a few minutes their first line was carried along the whole of the attacked front. Then, almost without a pause, the British troops attacked the western slopes of the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge, and by about 6.30 a.m. held the crests along the whole line.
The village of Messines offered resistance, but was captured by the New Zealanders in a vigorous attack, as was also the village of Wytschaete. By noon the second stage of the offensive was about to begin. ”

“ The general situation today is in our favor for the time being by the recapture of Wytschaete and Meteren and the repulse of many German attacks, but it is with natural regret one hears of the withdrawal from the heights east of Ypres in order to straighten the line and economize men. ”

“ Severe loss and disorganization are caused to transport piqueted in the open or bringing up rations and munitions. A spot undisturbed at one minute becomes the centre-point of a hellish tornado at the next.
April the 16th, while the men of the 108th Brigade, wearied out and dazed by shell-fire, snatched what rest they could, was the occasion of furious fighting at Wytschaete. The village was lost in the morning, and retaken by a magnificent counter-attack of those veritable paladins of modern war, the Highland Brigade of the 9th Division. ”

“ The Amiens line was now certainly stabilised, and if once again an equilibrium could be secured then the last convulsive efforts of this titanic angel of darkness would have been held. With no illusions, but with a dour determination to do or die, the British line faced to the east.
The immediate danger was that a gap had opened between Messines and Wytschaete, while another was threatened farther south between Ploegsteert and the Nieppe-Armentières Road. The pressure upon the Damstrasse was also very great in the region of the Ninth Division. ”

“ It was the hour when men rub their eyes and shiver in the cool air and stand to arms to meet that period which is most likely to bring the attack. The light of dawn, stealthy and suspicious, was showing in the east over a scene of ruin and desolation, and in this valley of dry bones something began to move. To the group of watchers in the trenches dark forms advancing could be seen through the mist. They came straight on without hesitating up the St. Eloi-Wytschaete road, towards Sackville Centre. It was known to our men that some Pioneers were out in that direction wiring the front. ”

“ The Allied line was pushed back along its whole front, Dranoutre and St. Eloi falling into the hands of the Germans, together with 6000 prisoners. It was the darkest hour of the Flemish battle, and was the more depressing as it came after a week of equilibrium in which the tide of invasion seemed to have been finally dammed. The German infantry had penetrated through the joining point of the French and British near Wytschaete, and at the same time through the French at Dranoutre, so that they were able to assail Kemmel Hill from both sides. It had fallen by nine o'clock. ”

“ Round about the salient a network of railways had been built with great speed under the very eyes of the enemy, and though he had shelled our tracks and engines he could never stop the work of those engineers who laboured with fine courage and industry so that the guns might not lack for shells nor the men for supplies on the day of attack. The battle of Wytschaete and Messines was a fine victory for us, breaking the evil spell of the Ypres salient in which our [11] men had sat down so long under direct observation of the enemy on that ridge above them. ”

“ All these stirring episodes, including the glorious destruction of the 4th Brigade of Guards, the formation of a permanent line by the Australians, the defence of Meteren and Bailleul by the Thirty-third and other divisions, the fighting at Neuve Eglise, and the defence of the Wytschaete and Messines fronts by the Nineteenth and Ninth Divisions with odd brigades to help them, all came within the area of Plumer's Second Army, which still consisted of the Ninth and Fifteenth Corps in the line. ”

“ ENTRANCE TO WYTSCHAETE
The motor takes the right-hand road to Oosttaverne (see p. 47) .
On November 3, 1914, during the First Battle of Ypres, it fell into the hands of the enemy. At four o'clock on the following day, the ground between this village and Hollebeke (some four miles to the north) was the scene of several furious attacks (see p. 8) .
Messines was destroyed by the British bombardment during the offensive of June, 1917. The New Zealanders captured it on June 7, in spite of a stubborn defence. They also took the neighbouring village of Wytschaete (see p. 20) . ”

“ Wyatt, as if unconscious that he had left the great body of his army behind him, and had now the enemy betwixt it and himself, rushed along past Charing Cross and through the Strand to Ludgate, in the fond hope still that the citizens would admit him and join him. In the passages of the Strand were posted bodies of soldiers under the Earl of Worcester and the contemptible Courtenay, who, on the sight of Wyatt, fled. It was supposed to be cowardice on his part, but was most probably treason, for he had engaged to unite with Wyatt, but had not the honesty to do one thing or another. ”

“ Pale but resolute, Wythe crawled into the hole, and then glanced quickly around him, as though in hopes of being able to penetrate the dense gloom. That his heart beat quicker than common, is no disparagement to his courage, for there is nothing so trying as facing an unknown danger in the dark.
Feeling around he found several pebbles, and flung them violently from him. From their faint echoes, he learned what he desired.
"It's a large cave, Paley," he uttered, as he emerged into the open air. "We must not enter without material for torches. ”

“ What right have I to complain of the householders? They have been very good to me and to my child, made provision for him in rich houses, treated him as if he were no market-woman's son, but the child of gentlefolk, and yet every day when I give the other children their dinner, I forget, and lay a plate for my Yitzchokel too, and when I remember that he has his meals at other people's hands, I begin to cry."
"Go along with you for a foolish woman!" answered Yente. "How would he turn out if he were left to you? What is a poor person to give a child to eat, when you come to think of it?" ”

“ Holding now the main ridge of hills from Zandvoorde to near Wytscheate on the Ypres-Lille road, a distance of five miles, and in possession of the village of Hollebeke, or rather of its site, the Germans appear to have decided that the effective direction for their attack was through Wytscheate and the sector of the Allied front following the Lille road from near Wytscheate through the village of Messines to Armentières. ”

“ When the citizens heard Weyasit’s answer they would not give up the city, and said that although their lord was dead he had left two sons, under whom they will recover or die. And so they defended themselves against the king until the fifth day. And as Weyasit saw that they continued to resist, he sent for more people and ordered arquebuses to be brought, and platforms to be constructed. When Karaman’s sons and their mother saw this, they sent for the chief citizens and said to them: “You see plainly that we cannot resist Weyasit, who is too powerful for us ”

“ It was not long before her confidence in the commander of the royal troops was justified, and news was brought that put an end to all fear. Wyatt was taken.
308 At the head of that body of his men who had been allowed to clear the enemy’s lines, he had ridden on towards the City, had passed Temple Bar and Fleet Street, till Ludgate was reached. There he halted. He had kept his tryst, fulfilled the pledge he had given, and knocked, as he had promised, at the gate. Let them open to him; Wyatt was there—successful so long, he may have thought there was magic in the name—Wyatt was there ”

“ As a kind of spell, cast by the fingers of steel and the superhuman flexibility of his opponent's wrist, a palsy was creeping up his outstretched arm. And one twitch of relaxation, he knew, and he was sped! Now, whether from the depth of his own need, or whether the spirit of the master were hovering over a beloved scholar in his dire extremity—who shall say?—certain it was that the very tones of Saviolo were now recalling to Wyatt's brain a favorite axiom of the fence-school:
"Chi para, busca; chi tira, tocca!" (He who parries, only seeketh; he who thrusts finds!) ”

“ Wyatt went right along the present Pall-Mall, past the line of the citizens. They had but to move a few steps to intercept his passage, close in, and take him; but not a man advanced, not a hand was lifted; where the way was narrow they drew aside to let him pass. At Charing Cross Sir John Gage was stationed, with part of the guard, some horse, and among them Courtenay, who in the morning had been heard to say he would not obey orders; he was as good a man as Pembroke. As Wyatt came up Courtenay turned his horse towards Whitehall, and began to move off, followed by Lord Worcester. ”

“ It was a close thing between the two shots, not more than a fifth of a second, I should say, and if you had only hit him in the body, I have no doubt that he would have fired before he fell; and if ever a man meant to kill another, he did. I could see it in his eye, as he stood there waiting for the signal. Well, Wyatt, you can stop in the army until you get to be a general, but one thing is morally certain, that after this affair no one will venture to insult you, and your first duel is likely to be your last."
"I sincerely trust so," Frank said gravely. ”

“ It was first a hum of voices and then articulated words.
"It seems that these forest expeditions are not to be taken lightly, Wyatt," said a heavy growling voice.
"No, Colonel Alloway," Braxton Wyatt replied in smooth tones. "There are no roads in the wilderness. If we want one we'll have to make it. It's the cannon that hold us back."
"The Indians could move fast without them."
"Yes, sir, but we must have 'em. We can't break through the palisades without 'em."
"Why, young sir, these red warriors can annihilate anything to be found in Kentucky!" ”

“ Wyatt watched him, thinking He will raise that gun and fire and that will be the end of it.
The man's voice reached him, thin with distance and surprise. "Hey, it's a man. It's human. It ain't no monster after all—"
From inside the open hatch of the globe Wyatt heard a radio-transmitted voice speaking.
"If you will withdraw your—er—aircraft as a sign of good faith, our representatives will come to—"
Wyatt didn't hear the rest of it too clearly. He was struggling with the reaction of relief. Not only for Earth, but for himself. ”

“ Holling had little to say, but he spoke of the rising value of land in the neighbourhood; and Wyatt was a landlord. Wyatt heard with a wretchedly simulated cheerfulness on his sad-eyed, sallow face. What would it profit him though he gained the whole world?
Wyatt had been in his day the brightest and best of companions; but when a man's material heart within him has taken on autumnal tints the man's spirits droop also. Both, the doctor knew, were symptomatic. ”

“ Though the combat was there renewed, all must have known that further resistance was vain, and at length, yielding to a remonstrance at the shedding of useless blood, Wyatt consented to acknowledge his defeat and to yield himself a prisoner to Sir Maurice Berkeley. He had fought the battle of many men who had taken no weapon in hand to support him. ”

“ Are thirty men to be driven all night through the woods by a single border rover?"
"I can put your question to the chiefs," Wyatt replied, "but I doubt whether anything will come of it."
He talked a little with Yellow Panther and Red Eagle and found that they were willing to try again. They were pursued by a devil, but, mysterious as he was, they would send forth the warriors, and perhaps they might trap him. They gave the signal and a dozen savages plunged at once into the bush, spreading out like a fan, and advancing toward the point from which the owl had sent his haunting cry. ”

“ Locomotive bell and coughing exhaust were music to Wyatt as the heavy train tooled into motion. At a car window he caught one glimpse of a panic-smitten face—a face with the unseeing eyes of fear, with a red mustache that blazed against a leaden pallor. Then Maximilian Veazie was flicked forever from his life.
“Well, there goes my one big scoop!” said Wyatt, a bit grimly. “There'll never be another one like that for me!”
But then he laughed—laughed in the knowledge that any loss for the sake of love is golden gain. ”

“ Henry and Paul were eager enough to see but the [Pg 253] schoolmaster was perhaps the most eager of all. This was something new in his experience. He had heard much of Braxton Wyatt, the renegade, once a pupil of his, and he did not understand how one of white blood and training could turn aside to join the Indians, and to become a more ruthless enemy of his own people than the savages themselves. Yet there could be no doubt of its truth, and now that he saw Wyatt he understood. Evil passions make an evil face. ”

“ Rex assured him. “I’m going to stick closer than any brother you ever saw.”
“You’d better,” Jack laughed.
It was a clear night, with a new moon, which, although it did not give much light, relieved the intense darkness of the previous nights.
“It’s a whole lot better than nothing,” Bob told the Indian.
“Heap much,” Kernertok grunted.
Twelve o’clock came and nothing had happened.
“Reckon he or it or whatever it is knows we are on the watch and is afraid to try anything,” Bob told the Indian as he started to call Jack and Rex. ”

“ What is your decision?"
"You say we must desert?" mused Wythe, thoughtfully.
"Yes. What excuse could we give? We must slip off to-night, without a word to anybody. I know what you are thinking of, Wythe. Nay, don't flush up so. 'Tis nothing to be ashamed of. She's a noble, true-hearted girl, and one that would be a rich prize for any man. I might have loved her myself, only that I had a talisman. In Ohio there is one waiting for me, who, please God, will one day be my wife," and Duplin, as he spoke, reverently uncovered his head. ”