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274 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
journey along La Digue, the broad, hard road skirting the
shore, with its excellent view of the sea. Here all civilian
traffic was forbidden and no lights were allowed in the windows.
In the evenings and at night the darkness was complete.
After supper, at ten o’clock, I was sitting once more on my
balcony, the two gas-buoys were burning and the swell was
breaking drowsily upon the shore, drowning the steps of the
sentries in the street. But I could see the soldiers by the
light from the windows. They moved mostly in pairs, whilst
other soldiers stood chatting in little groups, leaning against
the iron railing of the promenade and watching the sheaves
of fire from the British guns. In the course of ten minutes I
counted 141 shots ;
probably there were more, as several
might have coincided. In ten hours this meant 8500 shots, an
expensive business.
So I went to bed at Ostend for the second time. I left the
balcony doors open—it was too tempting to lie awake awhile
to watch the clear sky and listen to the harmonies of the
ocean swell and the booming guns. Gradually I drifted into
a deep and refreshing sleep.
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