There were a few seconds of dead silence, and then there broke out the most terrific fusillade it would be possible to imagine; machine gun and rifle fire mixed up in one long hellish tatoo; whilst, as though to punctuate the unearthly music, at intervals one heard the isolated bang of trench mortars and the sharp detonation of hand-grenades. The extraordinary suddenness of it all was so remarkable that it was as if it had been timed to commence at a certain minute. All quietude was now at an end, and although the firing varied in intensity it never ceased. At moments there would be a lull, and it appeared as though about to die out, and then it would recommence with renewed violence. It could certainly not have been more than a few hundred yards away, so near in fact that now and again one heard shouts and yells, and several stray bullets actually struck the upper part of the hotel. The fighting was still continuing when our companions returned. They told us that they had found out that this was the commencement of the expected counter-attack, but that so far it was not developing to any serious extent, though what the night might bring forth might alter matters considerably; anyhow, the Italians were not being taken unawares as the Austrians were discovering. This was interesting news, and made one feel that we were not spending the night in Gorizia for nothing, and that we might have an exciting time before the morning. For the moment, however, since there was nothing to be seen, we thought the best thing to do was to lie down and have a rest for an hour or so. Our companions had had an extra bit of luck whilst they were out, in the shape of a whole candle which had been given them, so we ran no further risk of being left in darkness. Of course we all lay down in our clothes, boots and all, ready for any emergency; when big “counter-attacks” are on the _tapis_ it is as well to take no chances. The beds looked very comfortable, and had clean sheets and pillow cases, but although I was very tired, I could not somehow get to sleep for a long while. I felt a sensation of discomfort which was almost unbearable, and had it not been that I did not wish to disturb my companions, I should have got up and walked about the room. It is not pleasant lying on a soft bed with all your clothes on, including field boots, on a hot night, and I put my restlessness down to this. However, I managed to doze off fitfully after a while, though for what appeared to be hours I was being continually woke up by what I took to be the noise made by men wearing heavy boots running down the stone stairs and slamming the street door. This at last woke me completely, when I realized that the noise came from the trenches, and was caused by the rattle of machine guns and rifles and the booming of mortars. I managed to get to sleep after this; the monotony of the noise ended by exercising a sedative effect on my nerves.