The winding road ends with the front trench, Up to now we have heard merely occasional discharges from the artillery. Now, from time to time, there is the noise of rifles, which reminds one of a shooting party. Some of the men are lying or sitting down, resting, while others are firing independently through loop-holes, with packets of cartridges spread out close at hand. The German trenches are about two hundred and fifty yards in front, beyond @ couple of beetroot fields. There is no sign of the Germans. They are invisible even to the artilleryman in charge of the French guns.
As I peer through a loophole, a terrific discharge makes me jum to the great amusement of the soldiers. It is one of the French batteries firing from a position two miles in the rear. More shelling follows, as if in our honour. Looking through the loophole again, I seo several shells burst in the distance, but whether they do any damage or not it is impossible to tell.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.