energy, they
now put the utmost exertion into their work; for see what had happened!
They were corporals, and had won promotion so early after joining the
French army, not because of any social position they may have had in
those days, now so long past, when these two young elegants thought of
little that was serious; no, they had won promotion for bravery in the
face of the enemy, because of the example they had set, because,
indeed, they were good soldiers. It made them flush all over; it made
them more determined than ever to prove themselves of value to their
comrades; and, as we have said, it set them digging with such furious
energy that those about them marvelled, and then, taking an example
from them, well knowing that the time available for improving their
shelter was limited, they too redoubled their efforts, till the
perspiration was pouring from them.

It was perhaps two hours later, when dusk was falling and the wintry
air was filled with snow-flakes, that the silence--that unnatural
silence which had hung for so short a while about the northern area of
the Verdun salient--was broken by a salvo of enemy guns, and then by a
roar, as each one of the two thousand and more pieces joined its voice
in the chorus.

"Into your dug-outs! Take shelter! Get below as fast as you can!"

The order sailed along those broken trenches, now repaired in some
measure, and sent men, who were not to remain on duty, down into the
cleverly-constructed holes prepared for such an eventuality. And then
commenced once more that terrible rain of shells, those devastating
explosions, those upheavals of earth, and that process of smashing the
French trenches. The dusk grew, until the darkness of night had
fallen, and still the guns pounded, searching every inch of the line
and not sparing a single corner. Yet, in spite of the gunners' efforts
to do their best for the Kaiser, there were still nooks and crannies
where French _poilus_ sheltered, where men controlling search-lights
played their beams over the slopes before them, and presently those
self-same beams, flung along the broken face of the wooded country
below, discovered movement.

"Another attack; men creeping from the forest and forming up out in the
open. Let us hope that our gunners and observation-officers see them,"
said an officer who stood behind Henri at his post in the fire trench.
"Now, my friend, shout into the dug-outs to warn the men, for it seems
to me