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.
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