"But as the new occupants began to organize their defenses they found that bullets appeared to be coming in from three sides of the village, and it was not long before they discovered that the Americans, while withdrawing from the front of the town, had commenced an encircling movement on both sides, thus forming a ring almost completely around it. "The Americans used machine guns, rifles, and pistols, and employed both the bayonet and the rifle butt with great effectiveness. The fighting in the streets was savage, but of comparatively brief duration. "The Prussian Guard had voted not to surrender, and their opponents were just as anxious to see the thing through. It became an affair of small arms, but the Americans proved to be better shots, and slowly picked off men here and there. "Then the Americans began to advance, and slowly their encircling ring closed about the village. As the ring drew closer and the defenders saw their doom approaching, they redoubled their fire; but still the Americans came on unfalteringly, like a storm, or the unavoidable stroke of fate. "When the Americans reached the precincts of the village their fire ceased, and with one wild yell they closed with the foe. The fierce uproar suddenly gave place to a strange silence as man grappled with man. Only the clash of steel on steel and the groans of the stricken could be heard. "The issue was never in doubt for an instant. At this kind of fighting the American is more than equal to any Prussian Guardsman, and in a little more than ten minutes all was over. Except for a few German prisoners, every German in the village had breathed his last. Such was the final capture of Seringes." The Americans awaited the coming of other Germans, but they came not. So the French and Americans moved on beyond the village, straightening out the line from that point to Cierges by bringing their heavy artillery to bear on mile after mile of barbed wire which the Germans had placed through the hills, forests, and other open places. The Americans reached Fismes, on the Vesle River, on August 2, 1918, the Germans retreating before them. They had advanced about forty kilometers in fifteen days, fourteen kilometers having been gained in the last two days of their pursuit. On July 18, 1918, they were intrenched only about Château-Thierry to Belleau; now they were in the heart of the German salient, which, thanks largely to American aid, was a salient no more. PART X--RUSSIA CHAPTER LVIII THE PEACE WITHOUT TREATY