- 'In the Trenches'
- from the book
- Tales of the Great War
- by Henry Newbolt - 1916
In the Trenches at Hill 60
In the Trenches
'I'm seizing the opportunity of scribbling a line or two now, because there's something rather satisfactory about writing home "under shell fire." As a matter of fact, that is hardly true, as the shells are a good two hundred yards away at present, but I expect they're trying to find us, and p'raps they will, later on. I'll let you know if they do!
'Now I must tell you about this place and how we got here. We left billets at quarter to three yesterday morning, in greatcoats and heavily loaded, and marched and marched and marched-really only about ten miles, but it took an immense time, as we were continually "checking," i.e. being held up by troops in front. Eventually we reached that famous and ruined town, of which you know the name no doubt, at 8 o'clock. It was a lovely sunny morning, and the ruined Cathedral and Cloth Hall were a very fine sight. Some streets are a complete wreck, others still untouched, with a few meagre shops in use. The battalion was put into a sort of school and the officers went off and had a first-class breakfast in a little café, as soon as the men had started theirs. Two Jack Johnsons came into the town, but only hit one man. Two little rooms; one each side of a street, were our temporary quarters, but they were only just big enough to hold all our equipment. Lance and I managed to get an hour's doze in the P.M. Then we had a schoolroom big tea. B Company got orders to go up to the "close support" trenches, i.e. a close second line, with another regiment in the brigade, and the remainder of the battalion got orders to move up into "dug-outs" (as reserve) in the third line.
'We moved off very slowly in the pitchiest black night, accompanied by a misty drizzle. That was 8.80 P.M. Our adventures on the way were many, some rather worrying, others humorous in a grim way. We didn't reach the end of the show till 3 A.M. this morning ! Of course the pace was frightfully slow, and we had one long halt out in a bare place, during which I fell asleep and woke up with a start; fairly shivering. The amusing part of it was the incessant jabbering of our French guides, who all wanted to take us different ways, and all said so at once. Then we had a wonderful incident, each company drawing water and ammunition from the train (wagons). It was pitch dark, as I said before, only blacker still if you can imagine it, and everything seemed in a fearful mess and box-up. Everyone shouted "Who er you? What company? What platoon are yer? Oh! I beg your pardon, sir, I didn't see you," etc. and I helped as much as I could to put people into the right places and - mirabile dictu ! - we were all back again in fours ready to move off-all in quite a short time. Then we came through a village, shattered all to pieces, and a great shell came screaming over our heads as we went along, and pitched about fifty yards off in a field and never went off! It was a wonderful noise, that shell-the first one I've heard quite close. It was the only one they put into the village (I gather they do it whenever troops are relieving, and it was wonderfully well timed for our arrival, far better than they could have expected, and not so very much too over-shot, but then it didn't burst.
'Then we came to the outskirts of the wood in which we are now, and the men began to lose touch, an inevitable difficulty at night over rough country, and I felt peace-training come to my help later on, when we got inside the wood itself. It was thick under-growth, and lined with little deep-sunk ditches and streams, and we had to press on, as stray bullets began to whiz past and hit the trees all high up, but likely to ricochet in any direction. You can hardly imagine the scene, because the wretched men (and officers, by Jove!) were absolutely dog-tired; it was now 2 A.M. and we'd been up at about that time the morning before. And the boxes of ammunition presented great difficulty-two men lugging along a box at irregular intervals along the line, and others carrying water, and stumbling and falling headlong into shell-holes and ditches, cursing and swearing and sweating. Oh! it was awful, but somehow it made me laugh a lot to myself. We were now about five hundred to six hundred yards from the front trenches and the noise of firing was just like a rifle rang a perpetual pop-pop. Fortunately, except for stray bullets, we were under cover the whole way up, though I hear two men in another regiment were killed.
'Then at last we came to our dug-outs. It is simply the world of Peter Pan's family in the underground scene. Little mud huts about half underground and half above made with pine- wood and mud, scattered about among the trees, some fairly isolated, some close together, all thickly lined with straw, and nearly all showing a thin coil of jolly-smelling smoke coming out of some hole in the roof. Can you imagine anything more utterly romantic? I felt exactly as if I was taking part in one of those cheap romantic novels, where English adventurers and native tribes live in just such huts, and listen to the crack of bullets. The native tribes' part of it was supplied by the odd-looking French troops which we were relieving.
'After all the men had crawled in, we five subalterns of D Company found ourselves a dug-out. I should so love you to see it. It has a sloping roof of pine boughs, which catches one's head at the highest part, so one is always stooping. There is a table and we have two chairs, and an enormous bed of straw about a foot from the ground. There is very little room to move about in, and we sleep packed like sardines, but it is fairly warm, and after dark we are allowed to make a fire and shall get a hot meal. Hurrah! They've stopped shelling and never found us. Firing goes on just as at night, single shots all the time. It seems most ridiculous, especially at night, but I suppose it is the only way of preventing working parties on the wire outside the trenches.
'That's all we know at present. We have to be ready to move at a moment's notice, day and night, when we should crawl up a communication trench into the close support etc. I got some lovely chocolate from -,-please thank her - and your letter of the 29th, thank you. This must be all now.'
The Great War took us by surprise in many ways; perhaps one of the things we least expected was that, after the first attack and repulse, fighting in trenches would entirely take the place of manoeuvring in open country. We had forgotten the history of our old wars, in which trenches, mines and countermines, bombs and hand grenades were all quite common methods of fighting. There is, of course, a difference. In this war the trenches have probably cost us far more in endurance and in losses than we suffered in any previous campaign; the numbers engaged have been much greater, the 'position-warfare' has lasted longer and the conditions have been more trying. In the Peninsula the trenches were often wet and cold-one winter 'a pair of iced breeches' was the daily portion of every man in them-but they needed so few men that they were manned in short shifts of only twenty-four hours each; and there were then no machine-guns, no high explosives, and no aeroplanes. There were some months at the beginning of 1915 when the armies in Flanders suffered the extreme of misery - in the small British force alone the casualties from frost-bite ran up to nearly ten thousand - and it was said by the head of one of the Red Cross departments that in her view there was only one way of classifying men; there were those who had been in the trenches and those who had not.
She would have 'passed' the Subaltern, for he happened to go out to the wettest point of the whole line that south of Ypres and he arrived just in time to experience the cold and mud before the ground dried. Moreover, though they were not there long, the Cornwalls were disappointed of their relief again and again, owing to the weakness of the reserves at that time; and it is hard to exaggerate the tenacity needed to stand the strain of prolonged misery, sleeplessness and danger combined. One of our Army Commanders, wishing to get a true estimate of this, consulted a regimental officer whose opinion he could rely upon. 'Knowing him to be an exceptionally brave man and one who had won the confidence of his men to a very remarkable extent, I asked him whether the strain of constantly fighting in the trenches was not very great. He told me that it was very great indeed, and that there were times when he thought he would be unable to stand it, and that he was very glad to have a rest.' That will help you to understand the following letters from the Subaltern.
'9/4/15.-I've just done three days and four nights in the trenches and am now in close support again, just behind, and no time to write and tell you all about it yet. It was a wonderful episode and I thought we should all die of strain and exhaustion at several moments, but somehow we didn't. We expect two more days of it either to-morrow or next day, and then, pray God, a good rest. I've averaged three hours' sleep in forty so far, but am expecting a decent night now. I'll write and tell you as much as I can about it all as soon as we go back. I very nearly got frost- bitten feet or rather sodden feet, but they have recovered to-day-much better. Parts of the trench were standing in water. .
'P.S.-Will you send as soon as possible one of those little egg-shaped perforated tins for holding tea-leaves in boiling water.'
10/4/15.. . Well, I can't describe every detail of one's experiences. It takes such a long time getting along from one end of one's trench to the other that one has to rely a lot on one's sergeants. They tell off the reliefs for each loophole. My job chiefly was to see (all the time) to the supply of ammunition and its correct expenditure (which latter rested on my judgment only) and also to the supply of rations, etc, oh, many other little things! The strain comes in owing to the fact that during our period of occupation I am entirely responsible for all that goes on-or may go on-inside and in front of my piece of trench. Mine was a funny winding piece, about fifty yards long, rather short of loopholes and pretty wet.
'During the day I had one man in six on "lookout" - taking an occasional peep through a loophole while the others slept in tiny dug-outs in the inner wall, and some had to fetch rations and others wood and sand-bags, etc.
At dark we stood to arms, every man at his post, with fixed bayonets-for about an hour. Then I had two men in six on duty at the loop-holes. They poke their rifles through and leave them resting there and take an occasional blind shot at the enemy's parapet-to prevent him from working on it or out in front. During the day, the one man in six takes an occasional snipe at anything he can see moving, or knocks down any loose sand-bag he can spot.
'I had the men divided in sections of 6 under an N.C.O.
At night we built up again with new sand-bags any holes the Germans had made during the day, and improved our loopholes. But there was never very much to do. As there were very few loopholes, about two-thirds of the men in the event of an attack, etc. would have to get up and fire over the top of the parapet; so we made stands for them to do this from.
'It is an order in this regiment that no officer may be in a dug-out during the night; so I spent my time wandering up and down the line, seeing that all was correct. During the day I snatched a wee nap in a dug-out just behind, in a communication trench, but I was wanted before I'd had a quarter of an hour, and I got no more. The second night was the worst. We were all very tired and short of sleep before we went into the trenches (we'd been up all night both nights before) and this was the fourth night for me without a sleep, though I had some on Easter P.M. I don't think I've ever felt so miserable myself as during the long hours of that night (Tuesday). I went up and down, staggering along and slipping about, flashing my electric torch into the faces of my men, who woke up with a start and said, "All right, sir, I'm awake," and then snored again as soon as I passed on. Poor devils, they were done to the world. I fell off twice myself as I was walking along and started with a jerk as I found myself leaning against the parapet right in front of a loophole. The next day and night (Wednesday) were not quite so bad somehow. We all seemed to have got a second wind. But Thursday the day was the longest that ever was, even though I got over an hour's sleep.
'The firing is incessant, but only very occasionally becomes rapid and then just for a few moments only, when perhaps a machine gun (in the trenches) is turned on to knock down part of the parapet. The uncanny part of it was the extreme nearness of the trenches. They were about twenty, twenty-five to thirty yards in front of me. In my piece, No. 19, there were as many as four "listening posts." These are deep tunnels going out under our parapet about fifteen yards (neither side uses grenades or bombs here unless the other does) towards the enemy, and I had men listening at the far end day and night for any sounds of tapping or digging. There were a few sappers about, but not nearly as many as one would have liked. I talked to one of their officers, who told me that by a system of underground sapping which they were now putting into practice and which he showed me (as I will show you some day) it was almost - he said "quite " - impossible for the Germans to mine us without being discovered. But we all felt a bit nervous about mines and saps, especially in Lance's trench, next but one to mine, where the two parapets stood only eight yards apart, and both sides maintained a deathly silence day and night ! On Thursday P.M., about an hour before we were relieved by another regiment, I was detailed to take a party to fetch rations from the dumping ground about two miles back, where our transport comes up every night with rations, and then bring them and a new draft, which I was to pick up there, along to our original reserve dug-outs. This was all successfully carried out, though we had a nasty shock near the dumping ground.
'The Germans had evidently discovered exactly where it was, and just as we were arriving at the spot, on the side of a road, a shell burst twenty yards away on the other side of the hedge. Thank God, it was one of those lyddite things, which merely burst on contact and spit iron and earth all round; for had it been shrapnel we should certainly all have been hit. As it was, we had time to crouch or lie down before the thing burst like thunder and splashed all over us. I remember distinctly thinking how odd it was that there was so much time between the moment that we knew we were in for it and the moment when it actually burst. You see we heard it coming, whistling along, very loud, and I heard some men near me saying, "I bet that's coming for us," and such remarks.
'We had no casualties, which was very lucky, as I went back afterwards and found its hole only twenty yards away. The men were all so frightfully worn-out with fatigue that it made us all very nervy and unhappy for a bit. It took about half an hour to collect all the men afterwards from ditches and ruined houses - we were about forty men strong.
'Then all went well. I got the rations and found the draft, and also Captain U., one of our (Oxf. and Bucks Light Infantry) captains, who shared exactly our fate when he came out about a fortnight after us. Now he is actually Officer Commanding D Company, 2nd Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, and I am one of his subalterns in this company! It is good to have someone in command of the company at last. We really had no one before.
'To carry on. We all got to the reserve (demi-repos) place some time that night or nearly next A.M., the whole battalion except B Company, which remained in the trenches; and of course we expected a decent rest of at least two days (we'd been told we should get that much). We slept till about mid-day-the most blessed sleep on straw, in our original dug-out-on Friday this is-and then I had a most refreshing wash, and shaved off a long beard-when suddenly orders to move off again, A and C Companies to new trenches just a bit further along from where we were before, and D Company (I was lucky, by Jove !) to new dug-outs in close support. So here I am on Saturday P.M., expecting at any moment that D Company will go up to the trenches to relieve one of our companies there (probably B, who have been there longer than any other). Shells are bursting pretty near - trying to find a battery of ours which shelled them this morning. A corporal of ours was grazed a minute ago getting water, but I don't think they've found us really; I think they are after that battery.
'Lance has become machine-gun officer, which pleases him, I expect, though I am very sorry, as he leaves the company and I shan't see much of him. .
'Please send the cousins many thanks for their capital tin of shortbreads and peppermint creams (hand-made)-I could do with some more of them. And thank you ever so much for the glorious Jaeger scarf and helmet, which are nicer than anything of the kind I've ever seen, or rather felt. They came yesterday, and I just wish you could see me in my fur coat and helmet, a complete Peter Pan boy under the ground.
'This is all I can write now (though I am not really too tired now).'
'12/4/15.-I don't think I have any more personal news to give you since I wrote last. Oh, yes 1 General - came round with our Brigadier this morning, just to say good morning to us. He seemed a very nice jovial gentleman, and made us laugh, when he carried his big body, evidently more quickly than he's accustomed to do, across the drive by our dug-out, which is supposed to be a favourite target of German snipers.
'P.M.-Some silly young idiots of ours started a fire in the wood before it was really dark, and it was extra-ordinary how soon the German artillery picked up the smoke. They were dropping shells round us within a minute, and they stopped - which seemed inconsequent to me - as soon as ever we got the fire out.
'The country. is pretty and we've had no rain for three or four days; so things have been pleasant enough but for snipers and stray bullets, which come very close every now and then. Isn't it incredible that German snipers can manage to get over their own trenches and over ours, and support themselves in the woods behind our lines and hit our men in the back? A small party of ours went out the other day after a particularly tiresome fellow and caught him alive. He was a boy of fifteen or sixteen, they said, and had been worrying our supports for some days, killing one and wounding four.
'We caught a message over the telephone line after that, from another regiment in the brigade, saying, "Well done, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Noted in game-bag !"
'The line in front is very quiet to-day, and I believe some sort of show is expected to-night. It is all so absurdly like a schoolboy's game, in which the main idea is tit for tat and a bit more if you can do it. I've noticed that many of our few casualties during these days have been due to sheer folly on the part of individuals; but to be sniped is very rotten luck.
'I can distinguish now between the French 75's noise and that of our guns. The Germans' is slightly different, and one can always tell which way the shells are travelling in the air.
'The Germans' lyddite shells seem to travel absurdly slowly - as I told you before in the case of that one which nearly did for us at the dumping ground. Shelling aeroplanes is quite a different sound again. The difference between it and ordinary shelling is much the same as the difference between a muffled and ordinary drum.
'The French 75 is the jolliest gun of all. It fires almost as rapidly as a Maxim, and with a fine short bang. It is a most encouraging noise. They've used them a lot in the woods behind us.
'It is very amusing to watch a German shrapnel trying to hit a British aeroplane. First the muffled report, then a little puff of white-grey smoke, invariably some way short of its mark; and the aeroplane goes on its way, singing like a lark. I've seen this happening several times.
'I've also heard several shells come over from the Germans to-day, which have certainly never burst, and I've never heard any of ours fail-which is an Irish sort of remark, but you know what I mean!
'Now some food and then some sleep-my men's rifles were good to-day.'
NEXT DOOR TO HILL 60
'17/4/15. 9.30 A.M.-I'm sitting on a couple of ammunition boxes outside my little dug-out dozing dreamily in baking sunshine. In front of me is my own parapet of sandbags about 6 feet high, and t'other side of that the ground shelves down gradually to the Germans' parapet of sandbags about 60 yards away. The country between and all round is a mass of tree-stumps, all bright-coloured splinters and chips, and the ground a rather bright-coloured yellow sand. Behind me (20 yards) is another line of sandbags, which is supposed to be the next trench on my left. As a matter of fact more than half of it is directly behind my trench and the other half 6f it extends away to the left rear. Twenty yards to my immediate left, my own trench comes to an abrupt end. Twenty yards to my immediate right, my trench bends back at a right angle till it runs into the beginning of the trench which) as I've said, is supposed to be the next trench on my left. Four hundred yards right away to my direct right there is a communication trench partly covered over with sandbags: this belongs to the Germans.
At nearly right angles is another German trench 500 yards from me, raised up on a slight hill, so that from where I am now, I see first the German communication trench at 400, and above it this other German trench at 500. This other trench is a fire trench, and what I am looking at is the back of it! Can you believe - all this possible!!! Not more than 1000 yards away to my left rear there are German fire trenches again, - as the line curves back there.
'I think it is the most incredible position that ever existed, and I'm sure it'll interest you immensely. One of the odd things about it is, that the people who occupied it before we came never realised the oddity, as I was never told of the absurdity of the German position (and my own for the matter of that) on my right. When I came in, of course the first thing I did was to build up and strengthen the two ends of my trench. Then I made a loophole, from which every now and then I go and snipe Germans along that 400-500 line. But to-day there are very few to be seen, and then only for half a second. Part of the line seems to have been (very naturally) abandoned, probably some time ago. And another part is so thickly wooded that one sees very little really indeed. Which partly accounts for the fact that, so far, I've only hit two Germans up there. The most extraordinary thing, as you'll be thinking, is that they can enfilade the whole of my trench, and that I look at the back of their trench. The oddity of this is only equalled by the fact that no one shoots at my trench at all, as far as I can see. The trench immediately to my front is supposed to be a German front line (fire) trench, and I suppose only three shots have come over me from there in the last thirty hours, and I can see no loopholes. Therefore, I personally believe it to be only a communication trench.
Consequently, here I am sitting dozing in the sunshine, on my two ammunition boxes outside my little dug-out, trying to explain it all to you.
'Well, it is all so odd that I could go on all the morning thinking and writing about it; but I really meant to write to thank you all for many messages, and letters, and parcels, and good things. I liked getting your letter of the 12th 50 much; it gave me a jolly feeling of being momentarily in your room again, upstairs.
'Thank you so much for your choice parcel, which came this morning. Cigarettes, tobacco (I've heaps of baccy now to go on with, thank you), and chocolate were all most welcome. I breakfasted almost entirely on chocolate this morning-as I didn't want to leave my trench in search of other food, and besides the chocolate looked, and was, so good.
We had quite a decent sort of rest in those reserve dug-outs, really, and came into the trenches again on Thursday night, quite well and hearty. Some sort of movement on the part of the Germans was expected both Thursday night and last night, so we kept very wide-awake - but nothing happened, and all is still absurdly calm and peaceful. The only apparent danger in this apparently very dangerous and isolated trench of mine is from chance bullets coming over from my left rear. We have had no casualties in this trench, so far, but in the one behind me they have two or three shot in the back from such stray bullets coming over; and there have been just such casualties in this trench last week. It is rumoured, and we hope it is true this time, that we are relieved on Sunday night and then go back to town for at any rate three or four days. That should be a proper rest, but there were one hundred casualties in that town in one morning the other day, from a sudden outburst of Jack Johnsons! So it doesn't sound too safe a place for a rest.
'I wear a fine pair of French gum shoes over my boots, and now have warm, dry feet.'
The Subaltern, you see, was beginning to find war quite interesting and not all unendurable. It was at this moment that he wrote to condole with his sister on having to say goodbye to her husband, who was just coming out. He added, 'But I bet he's as happy as a bird.'
Harder times were coming for everybody; both we and the enemy were secretly preparing to attack each other at different points. The English attack was to be made on Hill 60. This was a small bit of slightly raised ground near the railway, not worth calling a hill, but very important for all that. As long as the enemy held it they could overlook our lines and we could see nothing of theirs: they used it as an artillery observation post, and had fortified it very strongly. It was only just outside our trenches, and it would be a great gain if we could include it in our line.
So for six weeks past one of our Mining Companies had been burrowing under it: they had prepared six mines, each containing a ton of explosive. As soon as these had been fired, the 18th Brigade, headed by the West Kents and the K.O.S.B., were to rush forward, and the guns were to put a curtain of shell fire just beyond the Hill, to stop the Germans from reinforcing. This all came off on the 17th and was a complete success: two German officers and fifteen men were captured, the whole of the rest being blown sky high. Desperate counter-attacks followed, and for four days the Hill was thickly heaped with dead. After suffering many defeats and very heavy losses the Germans retook most of the Hill on May 6; but the Subaltern knew nothing of that, as you will see. What he heard and saw of the attack is told in the following letter.
'19/4/15.-Here I am still sitting on my ammunition boxes two mornings after I wrote last. We've had some excitements since then. Strange that it should have come after such a peaceful morning as that was; in the afternoon we had some nasty shelling. I was out of my trench-at tea time-just waiting to have my tea round at Company Headquarters in a dug-out behind, when shrapnel began to burst at intervals of about half a minute. It began about 40 yards away in the wood, where it is still standing thick behind, and gradually swept round right after us - one right over our dug-out there, spattering stuff about and knocking down a cup in the doorway - then it found our trenches. Two or three burst over the trench on the right of mine, as I hurried along to reach my own; there I found all the men ready "standing to arms," but all as a matter of fact cowering (correctly of course) down at the bottom of the trench. My equipment was on and everything packed in a jiffy; it seemed not unlikely that there might be an attack or some movement about to come off in front. A sudden burst of shrapnel over the trenches is the usual curtain-raiser to an attack. So we all kept down, waiting, except -for the usual few on "look-out," who bobbed their heads over the parapet every now and then for a peep. Then the shrapnel passed over our trench. But fortunately it didn't burst over it; the nearest shell burst about 12 yards to one side, so that by keeping down we were all right, and thank God I had no casualties at all. In the next trench on my right one man was killed and two wounded. It was perfectly horrid at the time, though looking back on it now makes it seem less alarming than it certainly was at the time. And that was not to end our excitements. There was no attack, or anything done anywhere in front; but a little later on we got orders about a big show on our part in the Brigade on our right, well within sound, but out of sight. At a given time we blew up one of their trenches over there and then rushed the position and occupied quite a good piece of their line. All this, perhaps, you'll see, or rather will have seen, in the papers.
Even to us the thing was like an earthquake, and smoke and dust went up ever so high; then there was half an hour's heavy firing, and all quieted down again, except for batteries upon batteries of guns. These, which seemed to be chiefly our guns, went on firing away all that evening and most of the night, so that the whole sky-line was continually flaring up, and the noise was tremendous. It makes every one a bit jumpy, and we didn't have much of a night. Early in the morning the Germans made a counter-attack, in which a good deal of fierce hand- to-hand fighting was reported, but we held on to the captured position and our guns kept shelling their supports for hours. Then things became normal again till the afternoon, when we were informed "repetition of yesterday, P.M., on the right."
'We heard no blowing-up of any trench, but this morning it was reported that we'd carried another position at the third attempt, with bayonets, and had suffered pretty enormous casualties.
'There is a rumour of still more doings again to-night, and as long as anything is going on so near, of course we cannot get relieved. We were to have gone yesterday P.M., and now we are supposed to be going to-night. But one can't tell. There is still excitement in the air in the shape of shells screaming about in quite ten different directions. When I began this letter a French aeroplane dropped a smoke-streamer over the Germans' lines, and now we've got a gun dropping shells over in that direction. The aeroplanes are very wonderful. There were six of ours and two of theirs hovering about yesterday P.M. during the fighting, and I found my glasses useful. I've not managed to discover very much more about the odd position of my trench, but I've a notion now that the cross trench up on the sky-line, where I snipe, is a German communication trench behind their fire trench, and not the back of their fire trench, and that our line and theirs bends round again. But the whole thing is very odd, and it's extraordinary how little interest in it the authorities seem to take.
'It is another glorious hot morning, and I loved getting your letter of 15th at 5 A.M. Everything is very quiet and I am looking forward to a sleep now, as soon as my sergeant wakes up and relieves me - for we've had two rather straining nights, and a longer spell of the trenches than usual. We had a stupid sort of incident in the trench yesterday P.M., a rifle went off accidentally as it lay by the side of a man who was sleeping there, and who must have caught the trigger somehow: damned fool hadn't got his safety-catch down, and the thing hit another man clean through the calf - quite a nice gentlemanly wound - but still !’
