Bouillon said, below his breath: "The blighters! Their trenches weren't far off."
When their volley was over we looked for them. They must have lain down. I consulted Lamalou: "A thousand yards, do you think?"
"Eight hundred, not more."
I gave the men orders to correct their sight. They had all been firing at four hundred in their surprise.
A rumour spread that they were coming.
"Fire! Fire!"
This time we could see them. Quite a change! Nearly everywhere, at Tailly, Halles, and Beauclair we had had to fire at random. How often I had cursed their invisible uniforms! Here, again, this grey line melted into the ground tint.
Never mind. Our men fired rapidly and coolly. The others threw themselves down again and their projectiles forced us to crouch down in our turn.
"There are an awful lot of them, the dirty dogs!" Henriot said to me.