"After the charge we moved along back of the German lines at a safe distance and found the hospital corps bringing back the German wounded.
"The artillerymen had resumed their duel and as we came up in the lee of the outbuildings of a deserted farmhouse a shell struck and fired the farmhouse immediately in front of us. As we paused to see if the shot was a chance one, or if the Russian gunners had actually gotten the range, a regiment of fresh reserves, young men who had just come up from the west, passed us on their way to get their baptism of fire.
"Their demeanor was more suggestive of a group of college students going to a football game than the serious business on which they were bent. They were singing and laughing, and as they went by a noncommissioned officer inquired rather ruefully whether there were any Russians left for them.
"Throughout the day we watched the fight waged from the opposing trenches and by the artillery.
"Suddenly at sundown the fighting ceased as if by mutual agreement. As I write this I can see occasional flashes of light like the flare of giant fireflies out over the scene of the Russian charge—the flashes of small electrical lamps in the hands of the Russian hospital corps.
"I'm glad I don't have to look at what the flashes reveal out there in the night."
CHAPTER XIII
THE AUSTRO-SERVIAN CAMPAIGN
Declaration of War by Austria—Bombardment of Belgrade— Servian Capital Removed—Seasoned Soldiers of Servia Give a Good Account of Themselves—Many Indecisive Engagements—Servians in Austrian Territory.