THE YPRES TIMES 239
Abraham Heights Aussies in Cameron Copse Tac Heels at Zillebeke old
soldiers who remembered Darghai and Magersfontein, and men who, as youths, knew
only Plumer's final drive those who gripped hands at zero hour, and those who fell
in mud and dust and rose no more.
You can never fail to recognize those who served in the Immortal Defence of Ypres.
Observe the set of the shoulder, drilled and patterned to a pack, which time can never
efface. See the eyes, puckered with peering to pierce the impenetrable darkness of
fearsome nights. Watch the gait which paces to the drum, lilts to the skirl of the pipes.
Note the legs, bent to the horse's belly, the back bowed that the rider may whisper
comfort even in a mule's ear.
INVERNESS COPSE.
There is a comradeship between men who served before Ypres, men drawn from all
ranks of life and as the war years recede the strength of this bond increases. It is
intangible yet dynamic, undetermined yet vivid, illogical yet born of nature herself
transcending all commonplace emotion and family affection, indeed the love of David
and Jonathan. If the clamour of the market place, the bickerings of political factions
and the disillusion of the Peace have weakened faith in that comradeship, then go
back to Ypres. Saturate yourself in its atmosphere, sample again that soil, soaked with
the blood of comradeship, and whose shrines are steeped with a spiritual love which
passeth all human understanding.
