ing
of the gunning away in the salient, and seemed to hear the groans of men
at Hooge, at St.-Eloi, in other awful places. The irony of that guest of
ours was frightful. It was bitter beyond justice, though with truth
in the mockery, the truth of a soul shocked by the waste of life and
heroism;... when I met him later in the war he was on the staff.

XII

The world--our side of it--held its breath and felt its own heart-beat
when, in February of that year '15, the armies of the German Crown
Prince launched their offensive against the French at Verdun. It was the
biggest offensive since their first drive down to the Marne; and as the
days passed and they hurled fresh masses of men against the French and
brought up new guns to replace their losses, there was no doubt that in
this battle the Germans were trying by all their weight to smash their
way to victory through the walls which the French had built against them
by living flesh and spirit.

"Will they hold?" was the question which every man among us asked of his
neighbor and of his soul.

On our front there was nothing of war beyond the daily routine of the
trenches and the daily list of deaths and wounds. Winter had closed down
upon us in Flanders, and through its fogs and snows came the news of
that conflict round Verdun to the waiting army, which was ours. The news
was bad, yet not the worst. Poring over maps of the French front, we in
our winter quarters saw with secret terror, some of us with a bluster
of false optimism, some of us with unjustified despair, that the French
were giving ground, giving ground slowly, after heroic resistance, after
dreadful massacre, and steadily. They were falling back to the inner
line of forts, hard pressed. The Germans, in spite of monstrous losses
under the flail of the soixante-quinzes, were forcing their way from
slope to slope, capturing positions which all but dominated the whole of
the Verdun heights.

"If the French break we shall lose the war," said the pessimist.

"The French will never lose Verdun," said the optimist.

"Why not? What are your reasons beyond that cursed optimism which
has been our ruin? Why announce things like that as though divinely
inspired? For God's sake let us stare straight at the facts."

"The Germans are losing the war by this attack on Verdun. They are just
pouring their best soldiers into the furnace--burning the flower of
their army. It is our gain. It will lead in the end to