We still our breathing to catch the full grandeur of
the volleys that are to tear them to shreds. Minute after minute passes and
the sound does not come. Then for the first time we note that the silence
of the whole region is not comparative, but absolute. Have we become stone
deaf? See; here comes a stretcher-bearer, and there a surgeon! Good
heavens! a chaplain!
The battle was indeed at an end.
Ambrose Bierce
