tteries in _rafale_ fire. The noise was incessant, and each
shell as it burst illumined a small section of the battlefield for a
second. It just showed a tree trunk, a bit of wall, a strip of hedge,
and then the darkness fell again over this point, while another was
illuminated by the crash of a new explosion.

At one moment a sudden horror gripped me. To my left a shrapnel shell
fell full on the line of the third squadron. This time the flash of
the explosion had not only lighted up a corner of landscape; I had had
a glimpse of a terrible sight.

You must imagine the intense and rapid light cast by a burning
magnesium wire, accompanied by a deafening noise, and in this brief
light the figures of several men, weirdly illuminated, in the
attitudes induced by the terror of certain death, and you will get a
faint impression of what I saw. Then, suddenly, everything fell back
into darkness, a darkness that seemed more intense than before after
the glare of the explosion. I dimly discerned bodies on the ground,
and shadows bending over them.

I did not stop, but I heard the voice of the Major calmly giving
orders:

"Pick him up! Gently...."

But the wounded man shrieked, refusing to allow himself to be touched;
his limbs, no doubt, were shattered. No matter! Forward! Forward! We
rushed on towards the wood, where we hoped to get some protection from
the avalanche of shells. A voice called out names behind me:

"Corporal David killed! Sergeant Flosse wounded; leg broken."

My men were running forward so impetuously that presently they were on
a level with me. What fine fellows! I half regretted that some hostile
troop was not waiting for us ambushed in the wood. We might have had a
splendid fight! But would there have been a fight at all? Would the
Prussians have ventured to measure themselves against these
dare-devils, whom danger excites instead of depressing? Well, we were
at the edge of the wood at last, waiting till the Major came up with
us.

Leaning against the trees, my Chasseurs took breath after their race.
I passed swiftly along the line to make sure that all my men were
safe. They were all there, and I was relieved to find that I had no
losses to deplore. The joys and sorrows of war had forged a bond
between us that nothing could break. I had soon learnt to know each
one of them, with his virtues and his faults, and I felt them to be,
without exception, worthy fellows and brave soldiers. Each