And yet he had fared better than he had a right to expect, a fact, however, that did not relieve his situation.
Another night came, and he went to sleep in his lonely cell in the wall, but he was awakened while it was yet intensely dark by a cannonade far surpassing in violence any that had gone before.

He rushed to the hole, but he could see nothing in the ravine.

Yet the whole plateau seemed to shake with the violence of the concussions and the crash of exploding shells.
The fire came from all sides, from the river as well as the land.

The boom of the huge mortars on the boats there sounded above everything.
Dick knew absolutely now that the message he was to carry had been delivered by somebody else.
He heard under the continued thunder of the guns sharp commands, and the tread of many troops moving.

He knew that the Southern forces were going into position, and he felt himself that the tremendous fire was the prelude to a great attack.