the parks of munitions, passed the third line
of troops, and then the second. Thousands and thousands of men were
bivouacking there in the open, improvising as best they could their
habitations. These human ant-hills seemed vaguely to recall, with the
variety of uniforms and races, some of the mighty invasions of history;
but it was not a nation en marche. The exodus of people takes with it
the women and children. Here there were nothing but men, men everywhere.

All kinds of housing ever used by humanity were here utilized, these
military assemblages beginning with the cave. Caverns and quarries were
serving as barracks. Some low huts recalled the American ranch; others,
high and conical, were facsimiles of the gurbi of Africa. Many of the
soldiers had come from the colonies; some had been living as business
men in the new world, and upon having to provide a house more stable
than the canvas tent, had recalled the architecture of the tribes with
which they had had dealings. In this conglomerate of combatants, there
were also Moors, blacks and Asiatics who were accustomed to live outside
the cities and had acquired in the open a physical superiority which
made them more masterful than the civilized peoples.

Near the river beds was flapping white clothing hung out to dry. Rows of
men with bared breasts were out in the morning freshness, leaning
over the streams, washing themselves with noisy ablutions followed by
vigorous rubbings. . . . On a bridge was a soldier writing, utilizing
a parapet as a table. . . . The cooks were moving around their savory
kettles, and a warm exhalation of morning soup was mixed with the
resinous perfume of the trees and the smell of the damp earth.

Long, low barracks of wood and zinc served the cavalry and artillery for
their animals and stores. In the open air, the soldiers were currying
and shoeing the glossy, plump horses which the trench-war was
maintaining in placid obesity.

"If they had only been like that at the battle of the Marne!" sighed
Desnoyers to his friend.

Now the cavalry was leading an existence of interminable rest. The
troopers were fighting on foot, and finding it necessary to exercise
their steeds to keep them from getting sick with their full mangers.

There were spread over the fields several aeroplanes, like great, gray
dragon flies, poised for the flight. Many of the men were grouped around
them. The farmers, transformed into soldiers, were watching with gre