.

.
rather late.

The forts were supplying themselves with new cannon.
Houses, built in the danger zone in the piping times of peace, were now disappearing under the blows of the official demolition.

The trees on the outer avenues were being felled in order to enlarge the horizon.
Barricades of sacks of earth and tree trunks were heaped at the doors of the old walls.

The curious were skirting the suburbs in order to gaze at the recently dug trenches and the barbed wire fences.