shell can be seen very well, too--talk about a bit of
iron--when the howitzer sends it up--allez, off you go!"
"And the 155 Rimailho, too; but you can't see that one because it
goes too straight and too far; the more you look for it the more it
vanishes before your eyes."
In a stench of sulphur amid black powder, of burned stuffs and
calcined earth which roams in sheets about the country, all the
menagerie is let loose and gives battle. Bellowings, roarings,
growlings, strange and savage; feline caterwaulings that fiercely
rend your ears and search your belly, or the long-drawn piercing
hoot like the siren of a ship in distress. At times, even, something
like shouts cross each other in the air-currents, with curious
variation of tone that make the sound human. The country is bodily
lifted in places and falls back again. From one end of the horizon
to the other it seems to us that the earth itself is raging with
storm and tempest.
And the greatest guns, far away and still farther, diffuse growls
much subdued and smothered, but you know the strength of them by the
displacement of air which comes and raps you on the ear.
Now, behold a heavy mass of woolly green which expands and hovers
over the bombarded region and draws out in every direction. This
touch of strangely incongruous color in the picture summons
attention, and all we encaged prisoners turn our faces towards the
hideous outcrop.
"Gas, probably. Let's have our masks ready.
Pages:
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271