"Can't you hear the growling of the guns there ?" John listened and soon he separated the note from other sounds.

Beyond a doubt the battle had now begun on both flanks, though at distant points.
He wondered where the English force was, though he had an idea that it was on the left then.

Yet he was already thoroughly at home with the staff of General Vaugirard.
The growling on either side of them seemed soon to come a little closer, but John knew nevertheless that it was many miles away.
"Not an enemy in sight, not even a trace of smoke," said de Rougemont to him.

"We seem to be a great army here, merely resting in the fields, and yet we know that a huge battle is going on." "And that's about all we do know," said John.

"What has impressed me in this war is the fact that high officers even know so little.