Electronic book host

Our first intimation of it was the presence, in a cabbage field beyond
the town, of three strangely subdued peasants softening the hard earth
with water, so that they might dig a grave for a dead horse, which,
after lying two days in the hot sun, had already become a nuisance and
might become a pestilence. When we told them we meant to enter La
Buissiere they held up their soiled hands in protest.
"There has been much fighting there," one said, "and many are dead, and
more are dying. Also, the shooting still goes on; but what it means we
do not know, because we dare not venture into the streets, which are
full of Germans. Hark, m'sieurs!"
Even as he spoke we heard a rifle crack; and then, after a pause, a
second report. We went forward cautiously across a bridge that spanned
an arm of the canal, and past a double line of houses, with broken
windows, from which no sign or sound of life came. Suddenly at a turn
three German privates of a lancer regiment faced us. They were burdened
with bottles of beer, and one carried his lance, which he flung
playfully in our path.


Pages:
59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83