“So the fort is not encircled?”
“They are on top with a machine-gun, but there is no one at the southern exit.”
“That exit is stopped up.”
“You jump from a window into the ditch.”
Others have made the attempt, but have not succeeded in escaping. These two do not furnish many details. For the time being they are too much absorbed in other matters, for they are professionals. Will the fort hold out? Life is no laughing matter in the interior on account of liquid fire and thirst. Then, too, the place is overcrowded: more than 600 men. Yet the morale is good. Up there, they will try once more to interchange messages.
At half-past seven in the morning Fort Vaux is no longer isolated. It speaks and receives an answer....
“The mountains are lofty, massive, and dark, the valleys deep, the torrents swift. Behind and in front of the army the trumpets ring, and they all seem to reply to the horn....”
But when Charlemagne’s trumpets ring, Roland is already no more. Imagine him rising up in face of death to listen to those blasts!
Fort Vaux informs the High Command as to the position of the enemy. Its message rings with hope:
“The enemy is working at the western part of the fort to construct a mine-chamber and blow up the vault. Strike quickly with artillery.”