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"Can you tell us where the boats are goin'?" The old road mender glanced over the parapet. "Eh? The trows, d'ee mean?" "Trows? Is that what they are?" "Aye; and they be goin' down to Glo'ster first, an' thence away to Sharpness Dock. They go through the Glo'ster an' Berkeley, and at Sharpness they finish." "Is that anywhere in the Bristol Channel?" The old man ruminated for a moment.
The echoes of them rang in his ears as he stood endeavouring to hide his disfigured face by looking over the parapet of the bridge down upon the stream running away towards the ocean, into which his hot tears slowly fell, unheeded by the weeper. Then he changed the intention with which he had set out upon his nightly walk, and turned back to his lodging.
Well, one day it was a very hot day, I remember, and I had come up here for a little change of air I was standing on the edge of the parapet watching our two young ladies who were walking up and down the terrace path down there, and thinking how nice they looked in their white dresses and blue sashes tied close up under their arms, like the picture of your great-grandmother as a young girl, in the great salon, Mademoiselle Jeanne."
To prevent giving umbrage, he drew no plan of the place, and even burnt the few sketches he had by him: however, as to utility, the colonel declared himself as much satisfied as if he had taken a plan. He could not ascertain the direct height of the rampart, but thought it could not exceed twenty-five feet, including the parapet.
Presently there was a clatter of horses, a jingle of bit and spur and saber. The old man stepped to the side of the road and sat down on the stone parapet. It would be wiser now to wait till the dust settled. Half a dozen mounted officers trotted past. The peasant on the parapet instantly recognized one of the men. He saluted with a humbleness which lacked sincerity. It was the grand duke himself.
All along these highways the 'tambos, or inns, were erected at a distance of ten or twelve miles from each other, and some of them were on an extensive scale, consisting of a fortress and barracks surrounded by a stone parapet. These were evidently intended as a shelter for the Imperial armies when on the march.
Here and there a man could stand upright, but in most places if you did not wish to be exposed to a sniper's bullet you had to progress on your hands and knees. In places the parapet was repaired with bodies bodies that but yesterday had housed the personality of a friend by whom we had warmed ourselves.
This parapet or garden-wall was formed of blocks or fragments of what had once been white marble, the probable remains of the ancient tomb from which the sarcophagus was taken.
There was really no reason for excitement; it is not much to point a cannon into a fog and fire it. Anybody can do as much as that. The men smiled at their noisy work, performing it with a lessening alacrity. They cast curious regards upon their captain, who had now mounted the banquette of the fortification and was looking across the parapet as if observing the effect of his fire.
And following his suggestion and example, the other two stretched themselves out in the middle of the cavern. Within the American lines, at that point where a regiment of heavy artillery was stationed, Captain Hallowell raised his hand in signal to his gunner. Out on the parapet of the front trench an anxious colonel was standing, regardless of all danger, a pair of powerful glasses to his eyes.
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