Vaast
on April 10, and the consequent retreat, over some seven miles,
since that day of the British line, together with the more recent
news of the capture of Armentieres and Merville. Sitting down at his
own table he read the telegrams again, and then in the stop-press
Sir Douglas Haig's Order of the Day--
'_There is no other course open to us but to fight it out. Every
position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement.
With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our
cause, each one of us must fight to the end. The safety of our homes
and the freedom of mankind depend alike upon the conduct of each one
of us at this critical moment._'
The Squire read and re-read the words. He was sitting close to the
tall French window where through some fine spring days Desmond had
lain, his half-veiled eyes wandering over the woods and green spaces
which had been his childhood's companions. There--submissive for
himself, but, for England's sake, and so that his mind might receive
as long as possible the impress of her fate, an ardent wrestler with
Death through each disputed hour--he had waited; and there, with the
word _England_ on his lips, he had died.
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