A bridge farther down the stream rumbled heavily as the artillery crossed on it.

But the French force was coming closer and closer.

A shell struck in the river sixty or eighty feet from them and the water rose in a cataract.

Some of the prisoners had been put at the oars and they, like the Germans, showed eagerness to reach the other side.

John noted the landing, a narrow entrance between thick clumps of willows, and he confessed to himself that he too would feel better when they were on the farther bank.
The Marne is not a wide river, and a few powerful pulls at the oars sent them near to the landing.