quoting at some length from the admirably vivid letter
in which he gave an account of this experience:

==
The part we played in the battle is briefly as follows.
We broke camp about 11 o'clock the night of the 24th, and marched up
through ruined Souain to our place in one of the numerous `boyaux'
where the `troupes d'attaque' were massed. The cannonade was pretty violent
all that night, as it had been for several days previous, but toward dawn
it reached an intensity unimaginable to anyone who has not seen
a modern battle. A little before 9.15 the fire lessened suddenly,
and the crackle of the fusillade between the reports of the cannon
told us that the first wave of assault had left and the attack begun.
At the same time we received the order to advance. The German artillery
had now begun to open upon us in earnest. Amid the most infernal roar of
every kind of fire-arms, and through an atmosphere heavy with dust and smoke,
we marched up through the `boyaux' to the `tranchees de depart'.
At shallow places and over breaches that shells had made in the bank,
we caught momentary glimpses of the blue lines sweeping up the hillside
or silhouetted on the crest where they poured into the German trenches.
When the last wave of the Colonial brigade had left, we followed.
`Bayonette au canon', in lines of `tirailleurs', we crossed
the open space between the lines, over the barbed wire,
where not so many of our men were lying as I had feared,
(thanks to the efficacy of the bombardment) and over the German trench,
knocked to pieces and filled with their dead. In some places
they still resisted in isolated groups. Opposite us, all was over,
and the herds of prisoners were being already led down as we went up.
We cheered, more in triumph than in hate; but the poor devils,
terror-stricken, held up their hands, begged for their lives,