Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1915-02-26
Copyright, 1914, by Charles scribnor's sOns)
CHAPTER XIx-ContInued.


Now the automaticS and the rifles
from the redoubt to which the Browns
had fallen back opened fire. So
close together were these bullet-ma-
chimes that the orbit of each ones
ewing made a spray of only a few
yards breadth over the redoubt, where
the Browns gun-fire had not for a mo-
ment ceased its persistent shell1ng,
with increasingly large and solid tar
gets Of flesh for their practice. The
thing for these targets to do, they
knew, was to intrench and begin to
return the infantry and automatics'
fire. Desperately, with the last effort
of courage. they rose in the attempt
rose into playing hose streams OF bull
lets whose close hiss was steady I'M
dertone between shell bursts. In the
garish, jumping light brave officers
impulsively stood up to hearten their
commands in their work, and dropped
with half-uttered urgings, threats, and
oaths on their lips.
The bullets from the automatics
missing one mark were certain to find
another, perhaps four or five in row,
such was their velocity and power Of
penetration. Where shells made gaps
and tore holes in the human mass, the
automatics cut with the regularity of
the driven teeth Of comb. The men
who escaped all the forms Of slaughter
and staggered on to the ruins Of the
redoubt pressed their weight on top
of those in the craters or Rugged be-
hind the pyramids of debris, and even
made breastworks from the bodies Of
the dead. The more that banked up,
the more fruitless the efforts of the Of
$icers to restore order in the frantic
medley of shell screams and explosions
at time when minute seemed an
age.
Meanwhile, between them-this
banked-up force at the charges end
and the Brown redoubt with its auto
mates, the Gray gunners were making
a zone of shell bursts in order to give
the soldiers time to make their hold
of the ground they had gained secure.
Through this zone Stransky and his
men were to lead the Browns in a
'counter-attack.
At the very height Of the Gray
charge, when all the reserves were in,
dark objects fell out of the heavens.
and where they dropped earth and
flesh were mingled in the maceration
Like some giant reptile with it's yer.
tebrae breaking, gouged and torn and
pinioned, the charge stopped. in with
ing, throbbng confusion. Those on
the outer circle of explosions were
thrown against their fellows, who
surged back in another direction from
an explosion in the opposite quarter
From the rear the pressure weakened
the human hammer was no longer driv
ing the ram. Blinded by the lightnings
and dust, dizzy from conclusions anC
noise, too blank of mind to be sane OF
insane, the atoms of the bulk of tht
charge in natural instinct turned from
their goal and toward the place whence
they had come, with death from al
sides still buffeting them. Staggering
ly, at first, they went, for want of in
itative in their paralysis; then rapidly
as the law of self-preservation asserted
itself in wild impulse.
AS sheep driven over precipice
they had advanced; as men they fed
There was no longer any command, nj
longer any cohesion, except of legs
struggling in and out over the unever
footing Of dead and wounded, while
they felt another pressure, that of tn,
mass Of the Browns in pursuit. OF al
those OF Fracasse's company whom
we know only the judges son anC
Jacob Pilzer were alive. Stained will
blood and dust, his teeth showing IL
grimace of hooking hate of all hu
mankind, PLIERS savagery ran free o
the restraint of discipline and civilized
convention. Striking right and left
he forced his way out of the region O
shell fire and still kept on. Clubbin,
his rifle, he struck down one office
NhO u iC0 w NSbuli DuL
officer, quicker than he, put a revolve
bullet through his head.
Westerling, who had buried his fac,
in his hands In Marta's presence a
the thought of failure, must keep tn
pose Of his position before the staff
With chin drawn in and shoulder
squared in sort Of petrified militar
habit, he received the feverish new
that grew worse with each brief bulle
tin. He. the chief of staff; he, He'd
worth Westerling, the superman, mus
be a rock In the food of alarm. WheI
he heard that his human ram was Il
recoil he declared that the repulse ha
been ggerated-repulses Away
were. With word that a heavy counter
attack was turning the retreat into a.
hngovernabls rout, he broke into
storm. He was not beaten; he coul
not be beaten.
Let cur guns cut a few swaths 4
the mobl" he cried. THAT will sto