osophy
and these days when it includes fame, probably fame never comes. This
time it came to a soldier without any of the showy qualities that fame
used to prefer, one who, I should say, was quite unaffected by it owing
to a greater interest in his work; a man without powerful influence to
urge his promotion. If you had met him before the war he would have
impressed you with his kindly features, well-shaped head and vitality,
and if you know soldiers you would have known that he was highly trained
in his profession. His staff was a family, but the kind of family where
every member has telepathic connection with its head; I could not
imagine that any officer who had not would be at home in the little
dining-room. Readiness of perception and quickness of action in
intelligent obedience were inherent.

Over in his office in the municipal building where we went after dinner
the general took something wrapped in tissue paper out of a drawer and
from his manner, had he been a collector, I should have known that it
was some rare treasure. When he undid the paper I saw a photograph of
General Joffre autographed with a sentiment for the occasion.

"He gave it to me for Douaumont!" said General Nivelle, a touch of pride
in his voice--the only sign of pride that I noticed.

There spoke the soldier to whom praise from his chief was the best
praise and more valued than any other encomium.

When I spoke of Douaumont he drew out the map and showed me his order of
the day, which had a soldierly brevity that made words keen-edged tools.
The attacking force rushed up overnight and appeared as a regulated
tidal wave of men, their pace timed under cover of curtains of fire
which they hugged close, then over the German trenches and on into the
fort. Six thousand prisoners and forty-five hundred French casualties!
It was this dramatic, this complete and unequivocal success that had
captured the imagination of France, but he was not dramatic in telling
it. He made it a military evolution on a piece of paper; though when he
put his pencil down on Douaumont and held it fast there for a moment,
saying, "And that is all for the present!" the pencil seemed to turn
into steel.

All for the present! And the future? That of the army of France was to
be in his hands. He had the supreme task. He would approach it as he
had approached all other tasks.

* * * * *

You had only to look at General Mangin commanding th