Even in that direction, owing to the overhanging blades of corn, the view was not extensive.

I had not gone more than a few hundred yards when I saw a body of troops marching past me not fifty yards away.

I looked at them for a moment and then turned my horse towards the river and started back, first in a walk, and when I thought myself concealed from the view of the enemy, as fast as my horse could carry me.

When at the river bank I still had to ride a few hundred yards to the point where the nearest transport lay.
The cornfield in front of our transports terminated at the edge of a dense forest.

Before I got back the enemy had entered this forest and had opened a brisk fire upon the boats.