trated themselves in looking. His
eyes appeared to have acquired multiple facets like those of certain
insects. He saw what was happening before, beside, behind him,
simultaneously witnessing extraordinary things as though all the laws of
life had been capriciously overthrown.

An official a few feet away suddenly took an inexplicable flight. He
began to rise without losing his military rigidity, still helmeted, with
furrowed brow, moustache blond and short, mustard-colored chest,
and gloved hands still holding field-glasses and map--but there his
individuality stopped. The lower extremities, in their grayish leggings
remained on the ground, inanimate as reddening, empty moulds. The
trunk, in its violent ascent, spread its contents abroad like a bursting
rocket. Further on, some gunners, standing upright, were suddenly
stretched full length, converted into a motionless row, bathed in blood.

The line of infantry was lying close to the ground. The men had huddled
themselves together near the loopholes through which they aimed their
guns, trying to make themselves less visible. Many had placed their
knapsacks over their heads or at their backs to defend themselves from
the flying bits of shell. If they moved at all, it was only to worm
their way further into the earth, trying to hollow it out with their
stomachs. Many of them had changed position with mysterious rapidity,
now lying stretched on their backs as though asleep. One had his uniform
torn open across the abdomen, showing between the rents of the cloth,
slabs of flesh, blue and red that protruded and swelled up with a
bubbling expansion. Another had his legs shot away, and was looking
around with surprised eyes and a black mouth rounded into an effort to
howl, but from which no sound ever came.

Desnoyers had lost all notion of time. He could not tell whether he had
been rooted to that spot for many hours or for a single moment. The only
thing that caused him anxiety was the persistent trembling of his legs
which were refusing to sustain him. . . .

Something fell behind him. It was raining ruin. Turning his head, he
saw his castle completely transformed. Half of the tower had just been
carried off. The pieces of slate were scattered everywhere in tiny
chips; the walls were crumbling; loose window frames were balancing on
edge like fragments of stage scenery, and the old wood of the tower hood
was beginning to burn like a torch.

The spectacle of this instan