ed about at the
bottom of the trench or busied themselves with repairing or improving
the indifferent shelters their predecessors had left them.

G. had gone to take the watch on which the junior officers of the
units defending the sector relieved each other every three hours. So
there I was alone, alone in the midst of my brave Chasseurs, with the
duty of guarding those five hundred yards of trenches--a very small
piece at that time of the immense French line. Behind us thousands of
our fellows were sleeping in perfect confidence, relying upon the thin
rampart we formed in front of them; and farther away still there were
millions of Frenchmen and Frenchwomen, who, under their family roof or
under that of their hosts, were resting in peace because of our
sleepless nights, our limbs stiffened by the cold, our carbines
pointed through the loopholes of the trenches.

Thus were we to celebrate the merry festival of Christmas. There was
no doubt that far away among those who were keeping the sacred vigil
more than one would think of us and sympathise with us.... No doubt
many a one among us would feel a touch of sadness that evening,
thinking of his home. But none, not one, I felt sure, would wish to
quit his post to get away from the Front. Military honour! glorious
legacy of our ancestors! Who could have foreseen that it would be
implanted so naturally and so easily in the young souls of our
soldiers? Within their youthful bodies the same hearts were already
beating as those of the immortal veterans of the epic days of France.
Men are fashioned by war.

Ten o'clock came on Christmas Eve to find that our day had passed in
almost absolute calm. It had been a glorious winter day, a day of
bright sunshine and pure clear air. The Germans had hardly fired at
all. A few cannon-shots only had replied to our artillery, which let
off its heavy guns every now and then upon their positions from the
heights behind us.

And then night came. B. and I had just finished our frugal meal. We
had promised to pay a visit to the Territorials who occupied the
trenches right and left of ours. Our Chasseurs had been posted in that
particular section so that in case of attack they might form a solid
base for the Territorials to rely upon. They did not conceal their
confidence in our men or their admiration for them; and their officers
had no scruples in asking for our advice when difficult cases arose.
In fact, that very afternoon the captain