When cannon throw shells ten or twelve miles, eyesight doesn't get much chance." A wait for a full half-hour followed, a period of intense anxiety for all in the group, and for the whole army too.

John used his glasses freely, and often he saw the French soldiers moving about in a restless manner, until they were checked by their officers.

But most of them were lying down, their blue coats and red trousers making a vast and vivid blur against the green of the grass.
All the while the sound of the cannon grew, but, despite the power of his glasses, John could not see a sign of war.

Only that roaring sound came to tell him that battle, vast, gigantic, on a scale the world had never seen before, was joined, and the volume of the cannon fire, beyond a doubt, was growing.

It pulsed heavily, and either he or his fancy noticed a steady jarring motion.