that
cock," and he twists himself again into the woolens, and resumes his
slumber with a gurgle in which snores are mingled with merriment.

Cocon has been wakened by Pinegal. The man of figures therefore thinks
aloud, and says: "The squad had seventeen men when it set off for the
war. It has seventeen also at present, with the stop-gaps. Each man has
already worn out four greatcoats, one of the original blue, and three
cigar-smoke blue, two pairs of trousers and six pairs of boots. One
must count two rifles to each man, but one can't count the overalls.
Our emergency rations have been renewed twenty-three times. Among us
seventeen, we've been mentioned fourteen times in Army Orders, of which
two were to the Brigade, four to the Division, and one to the Army.
Once we stayed sixteen days in the trenches without relief. We've been
quartered and lodged in forty-seven different villages up to now. Since
the beginning of the campaign, twelve thousand men have passed through
the regiment, which consists of two thousand."

A strange lisping noise interrupts him. It comes from Blaire, whose new
ivories prevent him from talking as they also prevent him from eating.
But he puts them in every evening, and retains them all night with
fierce determination, for he was promised that in the end he would grow
accustomed to the object they have put into his head.

I raise myself on my elbow, as on a battlefield, and look once more on
the beings whom the scenes and happenings of the times have rolled up
all together. I look at them all, plunged in the abyss of passive
oblivion, some of them seeming still to be absorbed in their pitiful
anxieties, their childish instincts, and their slave-like ignorance.

The intoxication of sleep masters me. But I recall what they have done
and what they will do; and with that consummate picture of a sorry
human night before me, a shroud that fills our cavern with darkness, I
dream of some great unknown light.

------------

[note 1] There is a complete set for each squad--stoves, canvas
buckets, coffee-mill, pan, etc--and each man carries some item on
march.--Tr.

[note 2] Cantine vivres, chest containing two days' rations and cooking
utensils for four or five officers.--Tr.

XV

The Egg

WE were badly off, hungry and thirsty; and in these wretched quarters
there was nothing!

Something had gone wrong with the revictualing department and our wants
were becoming acute. Where the sor