"As soon as we awoke, the real fight began again. Our Colonel, myself and the other officers were able to observe that a German force of great strength lay on our right in a very advantageous position. By a determined advance of a few hundred yards, the Germans could have annihilated our regiment and probably have cut off the left wing of the British army. That they had failed to take their stop with their almost unfailing military efficiency was most surprising, and it seemed to us that only some occurrence of an extraordinary and inexplicable character had checked them. We were also surprised to notice a great number of dead bodies of Germans lying in front of the German positions, where, as far as we knew, there had been no fighting.
"We resumed our retreat, and were fortunate in bringing a large part of the regiment safely to the Marne in view of the odds against us." Other soldiers told similar stories, with many variations. In some versions, the soldiers heard the noise of wings in the air, and the episode is sometimes called "The Angels of Mons."
Mr. Harold Begbie, the well-known English novelist and correspondent, in a little book called, "On the Side of the Angels," has suggested that Mr. Machen may have received the idea of the story by telepathy from the brain of a wounded or dying soldier at Mons, who may have actually seen such a vision.
It is evident that we are here in presence of physical phenomena of an interesting character. 