The Project Gutenberg EBook of Under Fire, by Henri Barbusse

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Title: Under Fire
The Story of a Squad

Author: Henri Barbusse

Translator: Fitzwater Wray

Posting Date: August 1, 2009 [EBook #4380]
Release Date: August, 2003
First Posted: January 20, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER FIRE ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines.

Under Fire

The Story of a Squad

By

Henri Barbusse

(1874-1935)

Translated by Fitzwater Wray

To
the memory of
the comrades who fell by my side
at Crouy and on Hill 119

January, May, and September 1915

Contents

I. The Vision
II. In the Earth
III. The Return
IV. Volpatte and Fouillade
V. Sanctuary
VI. Habits
VII. Entraining
VIII. On Leave
IX. The Anger of Volpatte
X. Argoval
XI. The Dog
XII. The Doorway
XIII. The Big Words
XIV. Of Burdens
XV. The Egg
XVI. An Idyll
XVII. The Sap
XVIII. A Box of Matches
XIX. Bombardment
XX. Under Fire
XXI. The Refuge
XXII. Going About
XXIII. The Fatigue-Party
XXIV. The Dawn

UNDER FIRE

I

The Vision

MONT BLANC, the Dent du Midi, and the Aiguille Verte look across at the
bloodless faces that show above the blankets along the gallery of the
sanatorium. This roofed-in gallery of rustic wood-work on the first
floor of the palatial hospital is isolated in Space and overlooks the
world. The blankets of fine wool--red, green, brown, or white--from
which those wasted cheeks and shining eyes protrude are quite still. No
sound comes from the long couches except when some one coughs, or that
of the pages of a book turned over at long and regular intervals, or
the undertone of question and quiet answer between neighbors, or now
and again the crescendo disturbance of a daring crow, escaped to the
balcony from those flocks that seem threaded across the immense
transparency like chaplets of black pearls.

Silence is obligatory. Besides, the rich and high-placed who have come
here from all the ends of the earth,