under Gen. Bulfin, to move forward before daybreak, in order to protect
the advance of the division sent up the valley to Vendresse. An
officer's patrol sent out by this brigade reported a considerable force
of the enemy near the factory north of Troyon, and the Brigadier
accordingly directed two regiments (the King's Royal Rifles and the
Royal Sussex Regiment) to move at 3 A.M. The Northamptonshire Regiment
was ordered to move at 4 A.M. to occupy the spur east of Troyon. The
remaining regiment of the brigade (the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment)
moved at 5:30 A.M. to the village of Vendresse. The factory was found to
be held in considerable strength by the enemy, and the Brigadier ordered
the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment to support the King's Royal Rifles
and the Sussex Regiment. Even with this support the force was unable to
make headway, and on the arrival of the First Brigade the Coldstream
Guards were moved up to support the right of the leading brigade (the
Second), while the remainder of the First Brigade supported its left.

[Illustration: Map 8.--Sept. 10 to 12. Showing the Germans' headlong
retreat to their intrenched positions beyond the Aisne.]

About noon the situation was, roughly, that the whole of these two
brigades were extended along a line running east and west, north of the
line Troyon and south of the Chemin-des-Dames. A party of the Loyal
North Lancashire Regiment had seized and were holding the factory. The
enemy had a line of intrenchments north and east of the factory in
considerable strength, and every effort to advance against this line was
driven back by heavy shell and machine-gun fire. The morning was wet and
a heavy mist hung over the hills, so that the Twenty-fifth Artillery
Brigade and the divisional artillery were unable to render effective
support to the advanced troops until about 9 o'clock.