"Habert, we have as guests to-night, two colonels! Dinner on the table at seven o'clock and let everything be perfect. "Your assistant and yourself will be in white from head to foot: breeches, jacket, socks, shoes and white gloves." "Good, lieutenant." "That is not all--wait before you speak--rice powder on your hair, so that it will all be regal--your hair well combed. Have you got a comb?" "Yes, lieutenant." "By the way, you have never told me--do you know how to use a tooth brush?----" "To shine the brass?" "They use them also for other things--I want a candelabrum on the table and have the candlesticks polished. Now for the menu--No, I forgot the flowers. You will find them in the basket that came from Bar-le-Duc with the provisions--Where was I?" "The menu, lieutenant." "Ah, yes. Appetizers--four or five different kinds--oysters, tomato soup, grilled sole, chicken fricassée--your specialty--goose livers and romaine salad, fruit, dessert, coffee. "Wine! The best that _père_ Louis has left us--with the goose livers, the champagne--with coffee my prune brandy, but be ready and if I call you be prompt. A roaring fire on the hearth--Good!" "Lieutenant, I do not believe that will be enough--I would serve a steak before the chicken----" * * * * * At the appointed time we go to search for Colonels Peigné and Benoit, who have not left the cellars in the Citadel since the beginning of the offensive, that is to say for three weeks--and they underwent a nerve-racking siege of it---- We brought them through the city and then "home" by the _Rue-sur-l'eau_. During the meal we thanked them several times for having accepted our modest repast so graciously. Ah! Our "modest dinner!" And we all "vaccinated the tomato" as Habert called it. Soon there was no thought of bombardment and all the preoccupations--What a feast! * * * * * They spoke of it a long time, it appears, in the humid cellars of the Citadel.... THE PILLAGER, VERDUN. _March_, 1916. It is night! I have just walked through Verdun, which is always being bombarded. As I was passing in front of a house, I heard a noise inside, the door was half-open--I entered the hallway---- In the bedroom at the side there was a series of loud noises as if someone was trying to move furniture---- I open the door. I flash my electric torch and perceive a soldier lugging a large wooden chest like a common house thief. He has not seen me, but turns brusquely at the flash of the light. He is kneeling on the floor and regards me fixedly. "What are you doing there? Surely it is your sister's house or you wouldn't be kneeling that way! Perhaps I interrupt you?" He shot me a wicked glance and looked furious at having been caught in flagrant wrong. "That's not right, what you're doing there, no, it's not right." "I do nothing wrong, I came here to sleep for a few hours on a bed!"