📙 Our assault had been a muddle from the start. Delays, artillery-men who could not obey their orders to hold off firing, a signal that we never heard . . .And now it happened that the supporting companies of the Royals had no sooner cleared the trenches than their ranks shook under a fire of grape, -- and from our own guns. There was no cure but to dash through it and take the chances, while Major Frazer, waving his sword, called on his men to follow him at the double!