The sergeant stopped and eyed His Lordship.

“Look,” he said, “he’s going to bed again.”

It was true.  His Lordship had stretched out on the cold, hard ground.

“Great Scott!  Can he sleep there?” asked Chester, in surprise.

“His Lordship,” said the sergeant calmly, “can sleep anywhere!”

CHAPTER XVI.

The German attack.

A battle, as severe in its hand-to-hand struggle and toll of life as Fredericksburg or Antietam, in the American Civil War—­yet in this vast conflict only an incident, chronicled as “progress” in the official reports—­such was the battle of Soissons.  It was the most terrific and the most bitterly contested of the great war up to date, January 8.

There, for eight days, men fell, torn with shell and bullet, and over these trenches men charged in the face of certain death.

A German attack in force opened the battle on January 8.  General Joffre had slightly altered his plan, as outlined to Hal and Chester, and immediately the battle began the French made a counter-attack.

The Aisne river, at this point, is one of the most strategic positions.  The battlefield covered a front of approximately seven miles.  On the western side is a deep valley, running northward, which is bounded on either side by turnpikes from Soissons, La Fere and Laon.

A high, level plateau rises steeply a couple of hundred feet from the valley of the Aisne and formed the center and eastern flank of the battlefield.  The plateau is deeply notched by three steep-sided ravines running down to the Aisne.  Through these General Joffre, if he chose, could bring up supports unnoticed and without danger to positions on the plateau.

The French counter-attack, then, was made up the valley to the west between the two turnpikes.

Immediately the Germans had begun their offensive the French made ready for their attack by a terrible artillery bombardment.  Field guns and heavy artillery concentrated their fire on this section of the German trenches, and there was such a rain of shell and shrapnel on the defenders that they were unable to make an effective defense against the French infantry attack which followed.

The French, with great dash, carried part of the German positions; but this success dampened the vigor of their artillery bombardment, which could not be continued without endangering their own men.  The big German guns opened a heavy fire on the rearward communications of the French, preventing the bringing up of reenforcements.

Meanwhile, General Von Kluck, the German commander, was gathering his forces for a counter-stroke, which came, not through the valley, but across the high plateau to the eastward, a large part of which was held by the French.  The surface of the plateau, which is fairly level, was crossed by row after row of deep French trenches, each trench with a clear field for the fire of its guns.