My two companions made a dash for a sort of dug-out which was close by, and I was about to follow them when I happened to glance round and saw a _carabinieri_ standing right out in the road a few yards away, as imperturbably as though it was a slight shower of rain passing over. He was looking in my direction, and I fancied I caught a twinkle of amusement in his eyes at my hurry. In an instant the thought flashed through my mind: if it doesn’t matter to him remaining in the open why should it to me? So I climbed back on to the road, trying the while to appear as though I had never really intended to take shelter. I had scarcely regained my feet when I heard the wail of an approaching shell, and then the peculiar and unmistakable sound of a big shrapnel about to burst overhead. I only just had time to put my arm up to protect my eyes when it exploded. It was like a thunderbolt, and so close that I heard pieces of metal strike the ground all round me. A moment elapsed and footsteps approached. Turning round I saw a soldier I had not noticed before; he was fumbling with something in his hands which appeared too hot to hold easily. Then to my astonishment he said to me with a laugh, and in perfect English: “I think this was addressed to you, Sir,” at the same time handing me a jagged little piece of shell. I was so taken aback at hearing English spoken just at that particular moment that all I found to say to him in reply to his brilliant wit was the idiotic commonplace “Thanks very much,” as I took the interesting fragment. It occurred to me afterwards that he must have thought me a very taciturn and phlegmatic Englishman, but I had just had a very narrow escape and felt a bit shaken up, as may be imagined, so was scarcely in the mood for conversational effort. We had hoped to have a look at the trenches round the lake of Doberdo, about three-quarters of a mile away from the village, but with the firing so intense and showing every sign of increasing rather than diminishing, it would have been madness to have attempted to get there, as it was right out in the open. In fact, there was considerable doubt as to the advisability of starting on the return journey yet, as the road was in the thick of it. We had only just been remarking on the extraordinary quiescence of the Italian guns which had not fired a shot since we had been up here, when scarcely were the words out of our mouths than suddenly, as though the limit of patience had been reached, with a terrifying crash, all the batteries near us opened fire. The result was positively magnificent, and roused one to the pitch of enthusiasm. We could see the shells bursting along the crest of a hill some two thousand yards away with such accuracy of aim that in a few moments there was probably not a yard of the ground that had not been plastered with high explosives; and anything living that was there must have been battered out of existence.