The Red Cross Barge by Marie Belloc Lowndes

And during all that warm, early September afternoon, across the golden / haze thrown up by the river, there came from '_la-bas_' the rolling, / muttering roar that was so like thunder, that now and again the Herr / Doktor asked himself whether it might not be thunder after all? But / whatever this provenance, these sounds had a strange, electric effect on / the French wounded. They became restless and excited. Hitherto they had / stayed below; now, without asking the Herr Doktor's permission, two or / three pallid faces appeared above the stairway, and there was a look of / strained suspense, almost of hope, in the eyes which avoided looking / frankly into his face.

There was yet another curious change in all those young, wild-eyed / Frenchmen. They talked in low hoarse whispers the one with the other, / and once he heard a reference to _la nouvelle armee_, and then again to / _l'armee de Versailles_. Of what army, new or old, could they be / thinking? Brave but unready France had put every man for whom she had / proper arms and accoutrements into the field from the first day.