The long line of defense formed a tunnel cut by
short, open spaces. They had to go stumbling from light to darkness, and
from darkness to light with a visual suddenness very fatiguing to
the eyes. The ground was higher in the open spaces. There were wooden
benches placed against the sides so that the observers could put out the
head or examine the landscape by means of the periscope. The enclosed
space answered both for batteries and sleeping quarters.
As the enemy had been repelled and more ground had been gained, the
combatants who had been living all winter in these first quarters, had
tried to make themselves more comfortable. Over the trenches in the open
air, they had laid beams from the ruined houses; over the beams, planks,
doors and windows, and on top of the wood, layers of sacks of earth.
These sacks were covered by a top of fertile soil from which sprouted
grass and herbs, giving the roofs of the trenches, an appearance of
pastoral placidity. The temporary arches could thus resist the shock
of the abuses which went ploughing into the earth without causing any
special damage. When an explosion was pounding too noisily and weakening
the structure, the troglodytes would swarm out in the night like
watchful ants, and skilfully readjust the roof of their primitive
dwellings.
Everything appeared clean with that simple and rather clumsy cleanliness
exercised by men living far from women and thrown upon their own
resources.
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