There had been no fighting where they had been.

I remembered afterward that luck was the word he used.
We went back to the main street and for a distance the roar of their volleying chorus followed us.

Men and women stood at the doors of the houses along the way.

They were silent and idle.

Idleness and silence seemed always to have fallen as grim legacies upon the civilian populace of these captured towns; but the look upon their faces as they listened to the soldiers' voices was not hard to read.