'Twas a Strange Pause, a Sullen, Heavy Silence

We dug a trench along the front and sides, and with the glitter of the close foem ans steel in our eyes, lopped the crazy thickets. We worked in silence while the frenchman's song and laughter came to us on the breeze. And as though all these were not enough to smother our desperate valor, even with the shadow of their numbers behind, the french chivalry again advanced. The vast array of france, stretching far to right and left and far behind, was loosed from its roots and coming on down the slope a mighty, frowning avalanche upon us a flowing, angry sea. There behind these tawny mercenaries, in end less waves of