The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1915-06-03
GHOSTS IN FLANDERS
SURELY OLD SOLDIERS REVISIT
SCENES OF BATTLES.
Five Centuries Ago English Warriors
Fought Over the Territory That
Is Now the Scene Of Euro
pean Warfare.

think that old ghosts must be astir
In Flanders, now that an English army
Is encamped there again, with Edward,
prince of Wales, on the headquarters
stan. Out of the mists of time there
must surely come some of those Eng
lish gentlemen and men-at-arms who
more than five centuries ago came
with another prince of Wales, called
Edward, to fight against heavy odds,
In and about all those towns In Bel
GUM and France which, again, have
become familiar in our mouths as
household words-St. Omer, Ypres,
Arras, Scissors. Reims, st. Quentin,
Gravelines. Dunkirk, Calais and Able
vile, Lille and Armentieres.
Perhaps Eyewitness" knows the
names of those silent ghosts, though
he has not yet written about them In
his dispatches, owing to the severity
of the censor. He knows, am sure,
that among those who watched the
destruction Of Cloth Hall were Sir
John Chandos-"the flower of knight
hood"-and Lord Thomas Percy, Sir
Godfrey de Harcourt and Lord Regin-
aid Gotham, Lord Thomas Holland
and Lord Delawarr, Lord Robert Ne
vile, Lord Thomas Clifford, Lord
Bourchier, Lord Latimer, Sir Walter
Manny-""sans peur ct sans reproche"
and many other knights and squires,
whom" as old Froissart said, II can.
not now name"
The ancestors of British officers who
are now fighting in Flanders rode un-
der their banners over the fiat marsh
lands, they banqueted in many of the
grand halls which now lie in ruins un-
der the German eagle, they stormed
at the gates Of many towns which are
now filled with British soldiers, their
lances glittered down many of the
roads where the winter sun now glints
upon the lances of French dragons;
and with the chivalry Of medieval
knighthood they did many acts Of
courtesy and valor and heroic adven-
ture upon the same ground where the
men under Sir John French have up
held the old traditions of their breed
with no less courage. Also, according
to the way of war they, ravaged the
countryside through which they
passed, burned farmsteads and peas
ants cots, swept it clean of all food,
looted its treasures, and laid 1t waste,
SO that there was desolation and fam
inc where the English army had
passed.
1t was Lord Henry Spencer, bishop
of Norwich, who undertook the siege
of Ypres in the days when English
arrows sung with a shriller note than
the modern she'll
DAY after day." writes Froissart,
"the assault continued. but the place
still held out. At last the English, find
ing that they could not take the town
by storm, and that they had expended
all their artillery, resolved to have a
quantity of faggots collected with
which to fill up the bitches, so that
they might advance and fight hand
to-hand with the garrison, undermine
the walls, and, by throwing them
down, effect an entrance"
Every road and dyke round Ypres
was moistened with English blood in
those old days, and now. fighting side
by side instead of against the French
and the F1emings. English blood drips
down to the same SOIL which is mixed
with the dust Of heroic bones, OF Eng.
lish arrowheads, of steel breastplates
and richly chased casque, and OF all
the panoply Of medieval knighthood,
now dissolved into the chemistry OF
the earth's graveyards.
II ghostly warriors keep the watches
of the night. Sir Charles Chandos. Sir
Walter Nanny, Lord James Audley,
Lord Reginald Gotham, and a thou
sand other knights of old renown, sa-
lutte the men who challenge death for
England. The Black Prince raises his
visor and kisses the sword hilt to Ed
ward, prince of Wales, who is walking
the same fields of fame and blood
London Chronicle.