Henry, Paul, and all the others knew
instinctively what was going to happen. They felt it in every
bone of them. The silence so sudden was full of meaning.
"Now!" Henry found himself exclaiming. Even at that moment the
order was given, and the whole army rushed forward, the smoke
floating away for the moment and the sun flashing off the
bayonets. The five sprang up and rushed on ahead. A sheet of
flame burst from the embankment, and the rifle pits sprang into
fire. The five beard the bullets whizzing past them, and the
sudden cries of the wounded behind them, but they never ceased to
rush straight for the embankment.
It seemed to Henry that he ran forward through living fire.
There was one continuous flash from the earthwork, and a
continuous flash replied. The rifles were at work now, thousands
of them, and they kept up an incessant crash, while above them
rose the unbroken thunder of the cannon. The volume of smoke
deepened, and it was shot through with the sharp, pungent odor of
burned gunpowder.
Henry fired his rifle and pistol, almost unconsciously reloaded,
and fired again, as he ran, and then noticed that the advance had
never ceased.
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