The sounds of cannon fire were sinking away, but they did not die wholly.

The faint thunder of the distant guns never ceased to come.

But the campfire, where he knew the German generals slept or planned, went out, and darkness trailed its length over all this land which by night had become a wilderness.
John was able to trace dimly the sleeping figures of Germans in the dusk, sunk down upon the ground and buried in the sleep or stupor of exhaustion.

As they lay near him so they lay in the same way in hundreds of thousands along the vast line.

Men and horses, strained to their last nerve and muscle, were too tired to move.