As I blazed into the soldiers there was a hurried rush for safety. They had now evacuated the top landing and I was pursuing them down the stairs. When I got to the first floor they had all disappeared—some had taken shelter in the rooms underneath, others had retreated headlong into the street. There was no other target for my bullets, but now and again I heard the sharp report of a rifle from the back, mingled with occasional groans and cries.
I rushed back to my room. At the door I tripped over two dead officers and a wounded Tommy. I had to pull each of them out of the way before I could close my door. I don’t know how I had missed tripping over them when I had first rushed out of the room. In the heat of the battle one does not see everything.
Once back in my room I banged the door and turned the lock. I knew I had not a moment to spare; for with the hundreds of troops they had apparently brought on the raid they were bound to make another attack. I sprang to the window. A searchlight played for a moment on the back of the house and a shower of bullets came whizzing through the glass. A few of them struck me, but a couple of wounds more or less did not matter very much, for I had already been hit more than once in the exchange.
The lower half of the window was already open. Sean had got out that way. I stepped on to the window-sill, and dropped into the roof of the conservatory. In the clear moonlight I could discern countless steel helmets all round the house. The Tommies were blazing at me. Before I could drop from the conservatory I saw I would have to get away through them.
With the revolver which I held in my left hand I smashed a hole in the roof of the conservatory. Then I gripped a beam and swung down, my German pistol still seeking a mark on the enemy. Right well did it accomplish its task, for within a minute there was not a soldier to be seen—they had disappeared.
I was still dangling from the roof of the glass-house. When I had silenced the enemy I swung back on the roof and then jumped to the ground.
I looked around for my comrade. There was no sign of him. I called out his name, but got no reply. I lay flat on the ground to avoid offering a target to any venturesome Tommy who might put his head over the garden wall. I continued to call out for Sean.
“Sean! Sean! Where are you?” But there was no reply. I thought he might have been struck getting through the window and might have been lying wounded in the conservatory. Now I began to fear he had fallen into their hands. Then I consoled myself with the thought that after all he had got away, though the chance was a poor one. I knew I had been fighting on the landing and stairs for nearly half an hour, and when I did not return to the room Sean may have concluded I was killed while he was trying to settle his revolver.
As I lay on the ground I realised I was getting weak. I had neither hat, boots nor overcoat. I had only barely time to slip on trousers and coat. I saw that I was wounded in five or six places and was bleeding from head to foot, but I had to move quickly. Strangely enough, I was beginning to feel that I would escape after all.
While I was still rapidly thinking what course to take the enemy returned to the attack. Several grenades burst around me near the conservatory. I made another effort and rose to move. A short distance from me I saw that low dividing wall that my host had been so careful to point out on my first visit. Now I appreciated his foresight as I made for the wall. A little distance beyond the conservatory in the garden I found the dead bodies of two soldiers. Then I knew Sean had passed that way.