I look from face to face.  They are merry, and in spite of the contractions of weariness, and the earth-stains, they look triumphant.

What does it mean?  If wine had been possible during their stay in the first line, I should have said, “All these men are drunk.”

I single out one of the survivors, who hums as he goes, and steps in time with it flippantly, as hussars of the stage do.  It is Vanderborn, the drummer.

“Hullo, Vanderborn, you look pleased with yourself!” Vanderborn, who is sedate in the ordinary, cries, “It’s not me yet, you see!  Here I am!” With a mad gesticulation he serves me a thump on the shoulder.  I understand.

If these men are happy in spite of all, as they come out of hell, it is because they are coming out of it.  They are returning, they are spared.  Once again the Death that was there has passed them over.  Each company in its turn goes to the front once in six weeks.  Six weeks!  In both great and minor matters, fighting soldiers manifest the philosophy of the child.  They never look afar, either ahead or around.  Their thought strays hardly farther than from day to day.  To-day, every one of those men is confident that he will live yet a little while.

And that is why, in spite of the weariness that weighs them down and the new slaughter with which they are still bespattered, though each has seen his brothers torn away from his side, in spite of all and in spite of themselves, they are celebrating the Feast of the Survivors.  The boundless glory in which they rejoice is this—­they still stand straight.

4

Volpatte and Fouillade

As we reached quarters again, some one cried:  “But where’s
Volpatte?”—­“And Fouillade, where’s he?”

They had been requisitioned and taken off to the front line by the 5th Battalion.  No doubt we should find them somewhere in quarters.  No success.  Two men of the squad lost!

“That’s what comes of lending men,” said the sergeant with a great oath.  The captain, when apprised of the loss, also cursed and swore and said, “I must have those men.  Let them be found at once.  Allez!”

Farfadet and I are summoned by Corporal Bertrand from the barn where at full length we have already immobilized ourselves, and are growing torpid:  “You must go and look for Volpatte and Fouillade.”

Quickly we got up, and set off with a shiver of uneasiness.  Our two comrades have been taken by the 5th and carried off to that infernal shift.  Who knows where they are and what they may be by now!

We climb up the hill again.  Again we begin, but in the opposite direction, the journey done since the dawn and the night.  Though we are without our heavy stuff, and only carry rifles and accouterments, we feel idle, sleepy, and stiff; and the country is sad, and the sky all wisped with mist.  Farfadet is soon panting.  He talked a little at first, till fatigue enforced silence on him.  He is brave enough, but frail, and during all his prewar life, shut up in the Town Hall office where he scribbled since the days of his “first sacrament” between a stove and some ageing cardboard files, he hardly learned the use of his legs.