"Some peculiar things of that sort have happened," said the Captain. "The Divisional headquarters to which I was recently attached, occupied, near the line, a château which for months had not been visited by a German shell. I became possessed with the idea, without any real evidence to which to attribute it, that so long as our lot did not shell the Hollebeke Château, our house would be free from a Hun shelling. The Hollebeke Château was in the German lines, and while I did not, of course, know positively, I felt sure it contained some German brigade or divisional headquarters. Many a time our batteries fired at enemy batteries on all sides of the Hollebeke Château, but not once was it made a target by our gunners.
"For week after week this condition of affairs continued, and was often the subject of comment among us. Naturally, in the absence of communication of any sort between the opposing forces, all this may have been mere coincidence.
"One day, returning from a walk, I entered the drive to our château just as Hun shells began to rain upon us. The shrapnel came thick and fast for several minutes, and the Divisional Commander and some of his staff officers had very narrow escapes. One shrapnel bullet passed through a wall only ten or twelve inches from the General's head.
"None of our divisional guns had been firing for some hours, but another battery in the vicinity had been doing quite a bit of shelling that morning. Curious, I asked the aeroplane observer who had been directing the fire of that battery what target he had given them.
"'I went up to direct their fire on some German guns reported to be near the Hollebeke Château,' the observer told me. 'I couldn't locate the described spot, so directed our battery to throw a few shells into the château itself. Our gunners at once registered one lyddite through the roof and four shells right through the face of the building. I'll bet we made it hot for any Boches that were inside.'
"Comparing times," continued the Captain, "I learned that the Hollebeke Château received its shelling exactly ten minutes before our headquarters château was shelled by the Huns. What made the incident more curious was the fact that for weeks our batteries did no more damage to the Hollebeke Château and never again, at least until I left it, did our château have a German shell near it."
The rain softened the earth about the dug-outs in front of Ypres, and soon an epidemic of caved-in sides and roofs was raging all along the line, assisted by Black Marias, which shook the moist ground until dug-out supports fell and walls collapsed wholesale. A captain of the 18th Hussars was in a dug-out roofed by an iron bedstead. A small landslide brought down the beams above and the bedstead fell, so striking the Hussar officer that his neck was broken and he was instantly killed.
The 19th, 20th, and 21st of May passed quickly, the three brigades of the Division changing from front line to support dug-outs and back again in relays as the days succeeded each other.
On the 21st the sun came out, bright and strong, and justified a few minutes' delay en route through Ypres to obtain some photographs. The town was sadly depressing. Earthquake and conflagration might produce as much ruin, but could hardly arrange it so fantastically.
In Ypres Madame Caprice came hand in hand with Devastation and Death. In diabolical mood she flung the shattered buildings of the staid old town hither and thither with an eye to the spectacular. The grotesque met one's glance on every side. Only a James Pryde could have done justice on canvas to such a scene.