dern battle. A little before 9.15 the fire lessened suddenly,
and the crackle of the fusillade between the reports of the cannon
told us that the first wave of assault had left and the attack begun.
At the same time we received the order to advance. The German artillery
had now begun to open upon us in earnest. Amid the most infernal roar of
every kind of fire-arms, and through an atmosphere heavy with dust and smoke,
we marched up through the 'boyaux' to the 'tranchees de depart'.
At shallow places and over breaches that shells had made in the bank,
we caught momentary glimpses of the blue lines sweeping up the hillside
or silhouetted on the crest where they poured into the German trenches.
When the last wave of the Colonial brigade had left, we followed.
'Bayonette au canon', in lines of 'tirailleurs', we crossed
the open space between the lines, over the barbed wire,
where not so many of our men were lying as I had feared,
(thanks to the efficacy of the bombardment) and over the German trench,
knocked to pieces and filled with their dead. In some places
they still resisted in isolated groups. Opposite us, all was over,
and the herds of prisoners were being already led down as we went up.
We cheered, more in triumph than in hate; but the poor devils,
terror-stricken, held up their hands, begged for their lives,
cried "Kamerad", "Bon Francais", even "Vive la France".
We advanced and lay down in columns by twos behind the second crest.
Meanwhile, bridges had been thrown across trenches and 'boyaux',
and the artillery, leaving the emplacements where they had been
anchored a whole year, came across and took position in the open,
a magnificent spectacle. Squadrons of cavalry came up.
Suddenly the long, unpicturesque 'guerre de tranchees' was at an end,
and the field really presented the aspect of the familiar battle pictures, --
the battalions in manoeuvre, the officers, superbly indifferent to danger,
galloping about on their chargers. But now the German guns, moved back,
began to get our range, and the shells to burst over and around
batteries and troops, many with admirable precision. Here my best comrade
was struck down by shrapnel at my side,--painfully but not mortally wounded.

I often envied him after that. For now our advanced troops
were in contact with the German second-line defenses,
and these proved to be of a character so formidable
that all further advance without a preliminary artillery preparation