He was instantly and gloomily silent.
We were halted to mount guard in a part we had never seen before, and for that reason it seemed worse than the others to us at first.

We had to scatter and run up and down the shelterless trench all night, to avoid the plunging files of shells.

That night was but one great crash and we were strewn in the middle of it among black puddles, upon a ghostly background of earth.

We moved on again in the morning, bemused, and the color of night.

In front of the column we still heard the cry "Forward!" Then we redoubled the violence of our effort, we extorted some little haste from out us; and the soaked and frozen company went on under cathedrals of cloud which collapsed in flames, victims of a fate whose name they had no time to seek, a fate which only let its force be felt, like God.
During the day, and much farther on, they cried "Halt!" and the smothered sound of the march was silent.