away a shower of hand
grenades came bowling over toward the first French trench. Many of them
fell short, and few did any damage; but hardly had this second plague
come to an end when out from the trenches climbed a swarm of Germans
rushing furiously toward the Frenchmen. At last the men in that first
trench had something to do. They jumped to their loopholes and blazed
magazine fire into this raging, tearing attack. Every bullet seemed to
find its mark; it could hardly have done otherwise at such a range.

The advance line wavered, stumbled over prostrate parts of itself, and
then swept onward again. There was no time for the Frenchmen to reload
their rifles; besides they did not want to do so. They simply climbed
out of the trenches and met the Germans with the bayonet. The German
guns were still roaring to prevent the arrival of French reinforcements;
but the reinforcements came quickly, suffering heavily in coming.

The few Frenchmen still struggled sturdily with their enemies, who
outnumbered them three to one, and eventually the Germans who survived
the attack turned and bolted back to their trenches, with the Frenchmen,
seeing red, at their heels.

It was as furious a fifteen minutes as could be conceived. The No Man's
Land between the trenches was heaped with men tangled and twisted in
death or writhing with wounds which unmercifully let them live. Neither
side dared venture across to aid these sufferers, so they were left in
their agony.

But this one desperate charge did not end the day's work. The French
mortars thumped away incessantly, and showers of hand grenades were
exchanged. One more attack was made by the Germans in daylight, with a
like result. The ground was piled high in places with bodies. Then,
when night had fallen, yet another attack was made. One mighty mass of
Germans came charging over the narrow space. By sheer weight of numbers
they overwhelmed the French and took the trench for which they had paid
such a ghastly price. They held it only for a few hours. By converging
on it from three points at once the French retook it soon after
midnight.

On Friday morning a wonderful French bayonet charge at length drove out
the Germans, who had fought most gallantly and stubbornly throughout the
day and during the night, and the terrible morning which followed. The
Red Cross workers were busy without ceasing; but many men had bled to
death, lacking surgical aid, in that strip of ground between t