human
I was all right at the beginning, says Martigny, one of my men.
gpt
But all at once, while I was still firing, down toppled a Boche right on top of me, without so much as a by your leave!
human
A good job for me that I was once fencing-sergeant in the regulars! Otherwise I should not be here now. Not even time to fix my bayonet before I found one of the ugly pigs on top of me with his skewer. I thought to myself: 'What's all this about? But you are going to find you can joke once too often, my Boche!' And there we were all in and at it. I parried a thrust with the stock of my rifle, but what sort of defence could I put up, seeing that my weapon was much shorter than his? Only he didn't manage to get his bayonet into me!... There wasn't even a cartridge! I tell you that Boche kept me jumping from side to side until I felt like dying from weariness. You know what a job it is to parry, when you can no longer feel your own fingers? Still jumping, I said to myself: 'What in the name of glory are those asses right and left footling about? Are they going to stand by and see me knocked out?' Oh! but they were there all right, and it was Gillet to the right who put a bullet into him while he was pausing to take a breath. Then I stuck on my bayonet and filled my magazine. There were others still coming up, you understand!
gpt
Sons of pigs, these Boches! rasps a miner from the North.
human
And what mugs they are too, _Mon Dieu!_ When I saw them swarming over towards me, 'Martin,' said I to myself, 'you're done for this time!' And then: 'Hurrah!' they're off! Bang, bang, bang! And I knew no more.
gpt
Martin, you are babbling, grunts a huge Champenois, who is smoking his pipe and listening with eyes atwinkle.
human
Hammer away at the earth, seeing that is what you were born for; but don't mix yourself up in conversations, because you can't talk.