midday autumn
The whole large plateau covered with heather lay before them , with here and there a group of dark firs that only showed spreading branches on the side away from the storm . These firs that cowered so timidly were trees that had been planted there ; they were hardly higher than the heather , and only recognisable on account of their different colour . And , here and there , there was a stray grey boulder and a cross that the wind had carried to the side of it . And a calm lay over the whole in the pale midday autumn light as though it were God 's acre . When they had climbed up the tower they saw still more . From the plateau they looked down into the valley : a blue expanse around them , blue from the darkness of the forests and from autumn vapours , and in the beautiful blue outstretched villages the white houses half hidden behind tall hedges . And here , looking down on Belgium , with its grey fumes hanging like a cloud in the clear transparent autumn air , lay the large town of Verviers with its church-towers and factory chimneys towering above it .