“I’ve been getting information,” Cocon goes on; “the troops—­the real troops—­will only entrain as from midnight.  They are still mustered here and there in the villages ten kilometers round about.  All the departments of the Army Corps will first set off, and the E.N.E.—­elements non endivisionnes,” Cocon obligingly explains, “that is, attached directly to the A.C.  Among the E.N.E. you won’t see the Balloon Department nor the Squadron—­they’re too big goods, and they navigate on their own, with their staff and officers and hospitals.  The chasseurs regiment is another of these E.N.E.”

“There’s no regiment of chasseurs,” says Barque, thoughtlessly, “it’s battalions.  One says ’such and such a battalion of chasseurs.’”

We can see Cocon shrugging his shoulders in the shadows, and his glasses cast a scornful gleam.  “Think so, duck-neb?  Then I’ll tell you, since you’re so clever, there are two—­foot chasseurs and horse chasseurs.”

“Gad!  I forgot the horsemen,” says Barque.

“Only them!” Cocon said.  “In the E.N.E. of the Army Corps, there’s the Corps Artillery, that is to say, the central artillery that’s additional to that of the divisions.  It includes the H.A.—­heavy artillery; the T.A.—­trench artillery; the A.D.—­artillery depot, the armored cars, the anti-aircraft batteries—­do I know, or don’t I?  There’s the Engineers; the Military Police—­to wit, the service of cops on foot and slops on horseback; the Medical Department; the Veterinary ditto; a squadron of the Draught Corps; a Territorial regiment for the guards and fatigues at H.Q.—­Headquarters; the Service de l’lntendance, [note 3] and the supply column.  There’s also the drove of cattle, the Remount Depot, the Motor Department—­talk about the swarm of soft jobs I could tell you about in an hour if I wanted to!—­the Paymaster that controls the pay-offices and the Post, the Council of War, the Telegraphists, and all the electrical lot.  All those have chiefs, commandants, sections and sub-sections, and they’re rotten with clerks and orderlies of sorts, and all the bally box of tricks.  You can see from here the sort of job the C.O. of a Corp’s got!”

At this moment we were surrounded by a party of soldiers carrying boxes in addition to their equipment, and parcels tied up in paper that they bore reluctantly and anon placed on the ground, puffing.

“Those are the Staff secretaries.  They are a part of the H.Q.—­Headquarters—­that is to say, a sort of General’s suite.  When they’re flitting, they lug about their chests of records, their tables, their registers, and all the dirty oddments they need for their writing.  Tiens! see that, there; it’s a typewriter those two are carrying, the old papa and the little sausage, with a rifle threaded through the parcel.  They’re in three offices, and there’s also the dispatch-riders’ section, the Chancellerie, the A.C.T.S.—­Army Corps Topographical Section—­that distributes maps to the Divisions, and makes maps and plans from the aviators and the observers and the prisoners.  It’s the officers of all the departments who, under the orders of two colonels, form the Staff of the Army Corps.  But the H.Q., properly so called, which also includes orderlies, cooks, storekeepers, workpeople, electricians, police, and the horsemen of the Escort, is bossed by a commandant.”