at which
had taken place on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd February had been almost
child's play--a grim, furious struggle was about to open, in which
hand-to-hand contests were to be almost general, and in which that
sturdy handful of _poilus_ were to be called upon to make yet again the
most gallant efforts.

CHAPTER XIII

Douaumont Fortress

"They come! See them, in their thousands! They are breaking from the
trees and the hollows!"

"Thousands of them! Hordes of them! Swarms of the Boches!"

Amidst the storm of shells which the German massed guns were pouring
upon that narrow front stretching from the Cote du Poivre past the Cote
De Talou to the River Meuse, heads popped up from battered trenches,
from shell craters, from fissures torn in the ground by high
explosives, and hardy, bristly, dirty _poilus_, stared down the slopes
through the wintry light and watched the enemy approaching. That
gallant band indeed, sadly thinned since the opening of the Verdun
battle--a battle destined to last longer than any recorded in all
history--looked on grimly and waited. Waited expectantly, not in fear
and terror lest they should be decimated, not even in doubt or
trembling, for the desperate conflict which had been waged so far had
taught the French one thing very thoroughly--man for man, they were as
good as, nay better than the Germans; gun for gun, their own artillery
was at least as dexterous and as exact in its ranging, and, so far as
it went, gave wonderful support to the infantry. All then that
remained was to withstand that terrible torrent of shells, and wait.
To discover shelter of some sort which would protect their bodies and
allow them to remain alive till that moment when those grey masses down
below got within reach of them.

"And then you shall see, my Henri and my Jules," the sergeant who had
spoken up for them on the previous day said, smiling grimly. "These
shells that fall about us--pooh! What are they?"

At that moment a 15-inch shell plunged into the ground just behind the
parapet--into ground already torn and plastered with shell
fragments--and, burrowing at least ten feet deep, at last exploded with
a muffled roar, setting the earth trembling, shaking in the sides of
the battered trench, and sending up tons of soil, which fell in a
cascade all round them.

"Poof! What are they?" he said again, saluting in the direction of the
exploded shell. "But nothing! But something to snap one'