Look at those
chaps, there, they're going back yonder, and you too, you're going
back. It all has to go on for you others. Ah, one must be really
strong to go on, to go on!"
21
The Refuge
FROM this point onwards we are in sight of the enemy
observation-posts, and must no longer leave the communication
trenches. First we follow that of the Pylones road. The trench
is cut along the side of the road, and the road itself is wiped out;
so are its trees. Half of it, all the way along, has been chewed and
swallowed by the trench; and what is left of it has been invaded by
the earth and the grass, and mingled with the fields in the fullness
of time. At some places in the trench--there, where a sandbag has
burst and left only a muddy cell--you may see again on the level of
your eyes the stony ballast of the ex-road, cut to the quick, or
even the roots of the bordering trees that have been cut down to
embody in the trench wall. The latter is as slashed and uneven as if
it were a wave of earth and rubbish and dark scum that the immense
plain has spat out and pushed against the edge of the trench.
We arrive at a junction of trenches, and on the top of the
maltreated hillock which is outlined on the cloudy grayness, a
mournful signboard stands crookedly in the wind. The trench system
becomes still more cramped and close, and the men who are flowing
towards the clearing-station from all parts of the sector multiply
and throng in the deep-dug ways.
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