; but the tragedy was above all in the going there.

* * * * * *

We changed country. We left the trenches and climbed out upon the
earth--along a great incline which hid the enemy horizon from us and
protected us against him. The blackening dampness turned the cold into
a thing, and laid frozen shudders on us. A pestilence surrounded us,
wide and vague; and sometimes lines of pale crosses alongside our march
spelled out death in a more precise way.

It was our tenth night; it was at the end of all our nights, and it
seemed greater than they. The distances groaned, roared and growled,
and would sometimes abruptly define the crest of the incline among the
winding sheets of the mists. The intermittent flutters of light showed
me the soldier who marched in front of me. My eyes, resting in fixity
on him, discovered his sheepskin coat, his waist-belt, straining at the
shoulder-straps, dragged by the metal-packed cartridge pouches, by the
bayonet, by the trench-tool; his round bags, pushed backwards; his
swathed and hooded rifle; his knapsack, packed lengthways so as not to
give a handle to the earth which goes by on either side; the blanket,
the quilt, the tentcloth, folded accordion-wise on the top of each
other, and the whole surmounted by the mess-tin, ringing like a
mournful bell, higher than his head. What a huge, heavy and mighty
mass the armed soldier is, near at hand and when one is looking at
nothing else!

Once, in consequence of a command badly given or badly understood, the
company wavered, flowed back and pawed the ground in disorder on the
declivity. Fifty men, who were all alike by reason of their sheepskins
ran here and there and one by one--a vague collection of evasive men,
small and frail, not knowing what to do; while non-coms ran round them,
abused and gathered them. Order began again, and against the whitish
and bluish sheets spread by the star-shells I saw the pendulums of the
step once more fall into line under the long body of shadows.

During the night there was a distribution of brandy. By the light of
lanterns we saw the cups held out, shaking and gleaming. The libation
drew from our entrails a moment of delight and uplifting. The liquid's
fierce flow awoke deep impulses, restored the martial mien to us, and
made us grasp our rifles with a victorious desire to kill.

But the night was longer than that dream. Soon, the kind of goddess
superposed