But if true courage consists in going out to meet an odious danger from which our body, soul, and heart recoil together, General D’Hubert had the opportunity to practise it for the first time in his life.  He had charged exultingly at batteries and at infantry squares, and ridden with messages through a hail of bullets without thinking anything about it.  His business now was to sneak out unheard, at break of day, to an obscure and revolting death.  General D’Hubert never hesitated.  He carried two pistols in a leather bag which he slung over his shoulder.  Before he had crossed the garden his mouth was dry again.  He picked two oranges.  It was only after shutting the gate after him that he felt a slight faintness.

He staggered on, disregarding it, and after going a few yards regained the command of his legs.  In the colourless and pellucid dawn the wood of pines detached its columns of trunks and its dark green canopy very clearly against the rocks of the grey hillside.  He kept his eyes fixed on it steadily, and sucked at an orange as he walked.  That temperamental good-humoured coolness in the face of danger which had made him an officer liked by his men and appreciated by his superiors was gradually asserting itself.  It was like going into battle.  Arriving at the edge of the wood he sat down on a boulder, holding the other orange in his hand, and reproached himself for coming so ridiculously early on the ground.  Before very long, however, he heard the swishing of bushes, footsteps on the hard ground, and the sounds of a disjointed, loud conversation.  A voice somewhere behind him said boastfully, “He’s game for my bag.”

He thought to himself, “Here they are.  What’s this about game?  Are they talking of me?” And becoming aware of the other orange in his hand, he thought further, “These are very good oranges.  Leonie’s own tree.  I may just as well eat this orange now instead of flinging it away.”

Emerging from a wilderness of rocks and bushes, General Feraud and his seconds discovered General D’Hubert engaged in peeling the orange.  They stood still, waiting till he looked up.  Then the seconds raised their hats, while General Feraud, putting his hands behind his back, walked aside a little way.

“I am compelled to ask one of you, messieurs, to act for me.  I have brought no friends.  Will you?”

The one-eyed cuirassier said judicially, “That cannot be refused.”

The other veteran remarked, “It’s awkward all the same.”

“Owing to the state of the people’s minds in this part of the country there was no one I could trust safely with the object of your presence here,” explained General D’Hubert, urbanely.

They saluted, looked round, and remarked both together: 

“Poor ground.”

“It’s unfit.”