ruff and
maddened, denouncing the enemy, who, down through the woods, were
forming for another attack in the pitiless monotony of conflicts. The
round red discharges from the guns made a crimson flare and a high,
thick smoke. Occasional glimpses could be caught of groups of the
toiling artillerymen. In the rear of this row of guns stood a house,
calm and white, amid bursting shells. A congregation of horses, tied
to a long railing, were tugging frenziedly at their bridles. Men were
running hither and thither.

The detached battle between the four regiments lasted for some time.
There chanced to be no interference, and they settled their dispute by
themselves. They struck savagely and powerfully at each other for a
period of minutes, and then the lighter-hued regiments faltered and
drew back, leaving the dark-blue lines shouting. The youth could see
the two flags shaking with laughter amid the smoke remnants.

Presently there was a stillness, pregnant with meaning. The blue lines
shifted and changed a trifle and stared expectantly at the silent woods
and fields before them. The hush was solemn and churchlike, save for a
distant battery that, evidently unable to remain quiet, sent a faint
rolling thunder over the ground. It irritated, like the noises of
unimpressed boys. The men imagined that it would prevent their perched
ears from hearing the first words of the new battle.

Of a sudden the guns on the slope roared out a message of warning. A
spluttering sound had begun in the woods. It swelled with amazing
speed to a profound clamor that involved the earth in noises. The
splitting crashes swept along the lines until an interminable roar was
developed. To those in the midst of it it became a din fitted to the
universe. It was the whirring and thumping of gigantic machinery,
complications among the smaller stars. The youth's ears were filled
cups. They were incapable of hearing more.

On an incline over which a road wound he saw wild and desperate rushes
of men perpetually backward and forward in riotous surges. These parts
of the opposing armies were two long waves that pitched upon each other
madly at dictated points. To and fro they swelled. Sometimes, one
side by its yells and cheers would proclaim decisive blows, but a
moment later the other side would be all yells and cheers. Once the
youth saw a spray of light forms go in houndlike leaps toward the
waving blue lines. There was much howlin