ened out of his
unconsciousness one of these beastly birds was sitting on his chest
waiting for him to die. That is war.

"The German shells were terrifying. I confess to you that there were
times when my nerves were absolutely gone. I crouched down with my men
(we were in open formation) and ducked my head at the sound of the
bursting shell, and I trembled in every limb as though I had a fit of
ague.

"It is true that in reality the German shells are not very effective.
Only about one in four explodes nicely, but it is a bad thing when, as
happened to me, the shells plopped around in a diameter of fifty meters.
One hears the zip-zip of bullets, the boom of the great guns, the
ste-tang of our French artillery, and in all this infernal experience of
noise and stench, the screams at times of dying horses and men joined
with the fury of gunfire and rising shrill above it, no man may boast of
his courage. There were moments when I was a coward with all of them.

"But one gets used to it, as to all things. My ague did not last long.
Soon I was shouting and cheering. Again we cleared the enemy out of the
village of Bregy, and that was where I fell, wounded in the arm pretty
badly by a bit of shell. When I came to myself a brother officer told me
things were going on well and that we had rolled back the German right.
That was better than bandages to me. I felt very well again, in spite of
my weakness.

"It is the beginning of the end, and the Germans are on the run. They
are exhausted and demoralized. Their pride has been broken; they are
short of ammunition; they know their plans have failed.

"Now that we have them on the move nothing will save them. This war is
going to be finished quicker than people thought. I believe that in a
few days the enemy will be broken and that we shall have nothing more to
do than kill them as they fight back in retreat."

That is the story, without any retouching of my pen, of a young
Lieutenant of Zouaves whom I met after the battle of Meaux, with blood
still splashed upon his uniform.

It is a human story, giving the experience of only one individual in the
great battle, but it gives also in outline a narrative of that great
military operation which has done irreparable damage to the German right
wing in its plan of campaign and thrust it back across the Ourcq in a
great retiring movement which has also begun upon the German centre and
left.

*When War Burst on Arras*

[A Sp