We could see the ammunition wagons parked on the reverse
slope of the hill. More were moving up to join them.
"The village beyond, Penchard, was thronged with troops and blocked
with ambulance wagons and ammunition carts.
"Through the rank grass at the side came tramping a long file of
dusty, sweating, wearied men. They carried long spades and picks
as well as their rifles. They had come out of the firing line and
were going back to Penchard for food.
"Topping the next ridge... the hill slopes steeply down to the
hamlet of Chamvery, just below us. The battery which I mentioned
just now is in the wood on this side of it to our right. The Zouaves'
firing line is lying flat on the hillside a little way beyond the
village, and behind them, farther down the hill, are thick lines of
supports in the cover of intrenchments. It is a spectacle entirely
typical of a modern battle, for there is scarcely anything to see
at all. If it were not for those shells being tossed to and fro
on the right there, and an occasional splutter of rifle fire, one
might easily suppose that the lines of blue-coated men lying about
on the stubble were all dozing in the hot afternoon sun.
"Even when some of them move they seem to do it lazily, to saunter
rather than to walk.... It is only in the cinematograph or on the
comparatively rare occasions of close fighting at short range that
men rush about dramatically.
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