ite close by, over the wood where the
battery is, come the crashes of the bursting shells. They sound like a
Titan's blows on a gigantic kettle filled with tons of old iron.

"At Trilport there is a yawning gap, where one arch of the railway
bridge used to be, with a solitary bent rail still lying across it. And,
among the wreckage of the bridge below, lying on its side and more than
half beneath the water, is the smashed and splintered ruin of a closed
motor car.

"Beyond the town was a ridge on which the French batteries were posted.
We could see the ammunition wagons parked on the reverse slope of the
hill. More were moving up to join them.

"The village beyond, Penchard, was thronged with troops and blocked with
ambulance wagons and ammunition carts.

"Through the rank grass at the side came tramping a long file of dusty,
sweating, wearied men. They carried long spades and picks as well as
their rifles. They had come out of the firing line and were going back
to Penchard for food.

"Topping the next ridge ... the hill slopes steeply down to the hamlet
of Chamvery, just below us. The battery which I mentioned just now is in
the wood on this side of it to our right. The Zouaves' firing line is
lying flat on the hillside a little way beyond the village, and behind
them, farther down the hill, are thick lines of supports in the cover of
intrenchments. It is a spectacle entirely typical of a modern battle,
for there is scarcely anything to see at all. If it were not for those
shells being tossed to and fro on the right there, and an occasional
splutter of rifle fire, one might easily suppose that the lines of
blue-coated men lying about on the stubble were all dozing in the hot
afternoon sun.

"Even when some of them move they seem to do it lazily, to saunter
rather than to walk.... It is only in the cinematograph or on the
comparatively rare occasions of close fighting at short range that men
rush about dramatically. For one thing, they are too tired to hurry; and
anyhow, what is the use of running when a shell may burst any minute
anywhere in the square mile you happen to be on?

"I walked with the company officers who were planning a fresh advance,
map in hand. They had gained the village in which we were that morning,
but at tremendous loss.

"'Out of my company of 220,' said one captain, 'there are only 100 left.
It's the same story everywhere--the German machine guns. Their fire
simply clears the ground l