There is a quicker throbbing of the heart when the men arrive at the crest of the hill, well known to all, but presenting fresh aspects every time the soldier reaches its summit, that overlooks the firing line.
Ahead, the star-sh.e.l.ls, constellations of green, electric white, and blue, light the scenes of war. From the ridge of the hill, downwards towards an illimitable plain, the road takes its way through a ghost-world of ruined homes where dark and ragged ma.s.ses of broken roof and wall stand out in blurred outlines against indistinct and formless backgrounds.
A gun is belching forth murder and sudden death from an (p. 304) emplacement on the right; in a spinney on the left a battery is noisy and the flashes from there light up the cl.u.s.ter of trees that stand huddled together as if for warmth. Vehicles of war lumber along the road, field-kitchens, gun-limbers, water-carts, motor-ambulances, and Red Cross waggons. Men march towards us, men in brown, bearing rifles and swords, and pa.s.s us in the night. A sh.e.l.l bursts near, and there is a sound as of a handful of peas being violently flung to the ground.
For the night we stop in a village where the branches of the trees are shrapnelled clean of their leaves, and where all the rafters of the houses are bared of their covering of red tiles. A wind may rise when you"re dropping off to sleep on the stone flags of a cellar, and then you can hear the door of the house and of nearly every house in the place creaking on its hinges. The breeze catches the telephone wires which run from the artillery at rear to their observation stations, and the wires sing like light sh.e.l.ls travelling through s.p.a.ce.
At dawn you waken to the sound of anti-aircraft guns firing at aeroplanes which they never bring down. The bullets, falling back from exploding sh.e.l.ls, swish to the earth with a sound like burning (p. 305) magnesium wires and split a tile if any is left, or crack a skull, if any is in the way, with the neatest dispatch. It is wise to remain in shelter until the row is over.
Outside, the birds are merry on the roofs; you can hear them sing defiantly at the lone cat that watches them from the gra.s.sy spot which was once a street. Spiders" webs hang over the doorways, many flies have come to an untimely end in the glistening snares, poor little black, helpless things. Here and there lies a broken crucifix and a torn picture of the Holy Family, the shrines that once stood at the street corners are shapeless heaps of dust and weeds and the village church is in ruins.
No man is allowed to walk in the open by day; a German observation balloon, a big banana of a thing, with ends pointing downwards stands high over the earth ten kilometres away and sees all that takes place in the streets.
There is a soldiers" cemetery to rear of the last block of buildings where the dead have been shovelled out of earth by sh.e.l.l fire. In this village the dead are out in the open whilst the quick are underground.
How fine it is to leave the trenches at night after days of (p. 306) innumerable fatigues and make for a hamlet, well back, where beer is good and where soups and salads are excellent. When the feet are sore and swollen, and when the pack-straps cut the shoulder like a knife, the journey may be tiring, but the glorious rest in a musty old barn, with creaking stairs and cobwebbed rafters, amply compensates for all the strain of getting there.
Lazily we drop into the straw, loosen our puttees and shoes and light a soothing cigarette from our little candles. The whole barn is a chamber of mysterious light and shade and strange rustlings. The flames of the candles dance on the walls, the stars peep through the roof. Eyes, strangely brilliant under the shadow of the brows, meet one another inquiringly.
"Is this not a night?" they seem to ask. "The night of all the world?"
Apart from that, everybody is quiet, we lie still resting, resting.
Probably we shall fall asleep as we drop down, only to wake again when the cigarettes burn to the fingers. We can take full advantage of a rest, as a rest is known to the gloriously weary.
There is romance, there is joy in the life of a soldier.
THE END.