They had sold their souls as
soldiers, but the Devil's price was a poor one. Had they had a
corps of cavalry ready, and pushed them through the gap, it
would have been the most dangerous moment of the war.
A deserter had come over from the German side a week before and told
them that cylinders of poison gas had been laid in the front trenches,
but no one believed him or paid any attention to his tale. War was then,
in the Englishman's opinion, a gentleman's game, the royal sport, and
poison was prohibited by the Hague rules. But the Germans were not
playing the game according to the rules, so the British soldiers were
strangled in their own trenches and fell easy victims to the advancing
foe. Within half an hour after the gas was turned on 80 per cent. of the
opposing troops were knocked out. The Canadians, with wet handkerchiefs
over their faces, closed in to stop the gap, but if the Germans had been
prepared for such success they could have cleared the way to the coast.
But after such trials the Germans stopped the use of free chlorine and
began the preparation of more poisonous gases.
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