es of
the ground, rolled slowly down the trenches. Shells would rend it for a
moment, but it only settled down again as thickly as before.

Nevertheless, the German infantry faced it, and they faced a hail of
shrapnel as well. In some cases where the gas had not reached our lines
our troops held firm and shot through the cloud at the advancing
Germans. In other cases the men holding the front line managed to move
to the flank, where they were more or less beyond the affected area.
Here they waited until the enemy came on and then bayoneted them when
they reached our trenches.

[Sidenote: A charge through the gas.]

On the extreme left our supports waited until the vapor reached our
trenches, when they charged through it and met the advancing Germans
with the bayonet as they swarmed over the parapets.

South of St. Julien the denseness of the vapor compelled us to evacuate
trenches, but reinforcements arrived who charged the enemy before they
could establish themselves in position. In every case the assaults
failed completely. Large numbers were mown down by our artillery. Men
were seen falling and others scattering and running back to their own
lines. Many who reached the gas cloud could not make their way through
it, and in all probability a great number of the wounded perished from
the fumes.

It is to that extent, from a military standpoint, a sign of weakness.
Another sign of weakness is the adoption of illegal methods of fighting,
such as spreading poisonous gas. It is a confession by the Germans that
they have lost their former great superiority in artillery and are, at
any cost, seeking another technical advantage over their enemy as a
substitute.

[Sidenote: The enemy sticks at nothing.]

Nevertheless, this spirit, this determination on the part of our enemies
to stick at nothing must not be underestimated. Though it may not pay
the Germans in the long run, it renders it all the more obvious that
they are a foe that can be overcome only by the force of overwhelming
numbers of men and guns.

Further to the east a similar attack was made about 7 P. M. which seems
to have been attended with even less success, and the assaulting
infantry was at once beaten back by our artillery fire.

It was not long before all our trenches were reoccupied and the whole
line reestablished in its original position. The attack on the French
met with the same result.

Prisoners captured in the recent fighting, the narrativ