length in front of us, over there,
on those hills on the horizon. At daybreak a decisive battle would be
fought.

I had been a victim to despondency. For three days I had been as if
trampled on, without energy and without thought for the future. It was the
excessive fatigue, indeed, that had just awakened me. Now, lying on my
back, with my eyes wide open, I was thinking whilst gazing into the night,
I thought of this battle, this butchery, which the sun was about to light
up. For more than six years, at the first shot in each fight, I had been
saying good-bye to those I loved the most fondly, Babet and uncle Lazare.
And now, barely a month before my discharge, I had to say good-bye again,
and this time perhaps for ever.

Then my thoughts softened. With closed eyelids I saw Babet and my uncle
Lazare. How long it was since I had kissed them! I remembered the day of
our separation; my uncle weeping because he was poor, and allowing me to
leave like that, and Babet, in the evening, had vowed she would wait for
me, and that she would never love another. I had had to quit all, my
master at Grenoble, my friends at Dourgues. A few letters had come from
time to time to tell me they always loved me, and that happiness was
awaiting me in my well-beloved valley. And I, I was going to fight, I was
going to get killed.

I began dreaming of my return. I saw my poor old uncle on the threshold of
the parsonage extending his trembling arms; and behind him was Babet,
quite red, smiling through her tears. I fell into their arms and kissed
them, seeking for expressions--

Suddenly the beating of drums recalled me to stern reality. Daybreak had
come, the grey plain expanded in the morning mist. The ground became full
of life, indistinct forms appeared on all sides; a sound that became
louder and louder filled the air; it was the call of bugles, the galloping
of horses, the rumble of artillery, the shouting out of orders. War came
threatening, amidst my dream of tenderness. I rose with difficulty; it
seemed to me that my bones were broken, and that my head was about to
split. I hastily got my men together; for I must tell you that I had won
the rank of sergeant. We soon received orders to bear to the left and
occupy a hillock above the plain.

As we were about to move, the sergeant-major came running along and
shouting:

"A letter for Sergeant Gourdon!"

And he handed me a dirty crumpled letter, which had been lying perhaps for
a we