I placed the cage in the machine that takes me to Bar-le-Duc--Repeatedly during the journey the bird cries: "To Hell with the Crown Prince!" It is surely Habert who has taught him this new "song"---- FOOTNOTES: [21] Marmites--German shells of big caliber.--Tr. [22] As they leave the trenches, muddy, unshaven, dirty, red-eyed.--Tr. [23] Cassé means wounded, hurt or smashed, and when pronounced sounds very much like "K.C."--Tr. [24] This is the first time the author saw a member of the Knights of Columbus actively engaged in succoring wounded at the immediate front.--Tr. [25] A familiar expression, friends or companions.--Tr. [26] A street in Verdun.--Tr. CHAPTER SEVEN THE RECAPTURE OF FORT DOUAUMONT AND THE ATTACK OF PEPPER HILL _The author assisted in two important episodes of the great war. On October 24, 1916, he flew over Fort Douaumont with Major Armengaud at the precise moment the poilus swarmed over it after eight months' of incessant battle. The first men who entered Douaumont were the same sappers of the 19th Company, 2nd Engineers, with whom the author fought at Grande Dune. (Chaps. I and III.)_ _It is during this period that the author was appointed first lieutenant in July and Captain in October after the capture of Douaumont._ _On December 15, 1916, Captain Capart was at Pepper Hill during the victorious advance of the French._ CHAPTER SEVEN STORY OF A PAIR OF BOOTS, BAR-LE-DUC. _June_ 6, 1916. I have just dined with General Pétain. I find myself in the little home of M. and Mme. Lévy, where I have put up during the last days of our sojourn in this city. I occupy a pretty room looking out on the garden, at which I look every morning on awakening---- Seated on my bed, I do not think of sleep, but let my thoughts wander, fixedly regarding the flame of my candle! All at once my eyes rest on the new boots which I have bought the same morning in Paris. I begin to laugh. It had been very apparent to me that all my comrades had admired them---- Yes, I recall, when the general was talking to me, I heard one of them say to the other: "What wonderful boots!" * * * * * That is not all! I got ready for bed--From to-morrow a new life opened for me--I began with the boots. I unlaced them, but perceived with despair that, in spite of energetic efforts, I could not pull them off my feet---- Unnerved and swearing like a madman, using the furniture as a buttress, I painfully succeeded in getting one off--but the other? Impossible! This damned boot did not seem to understand--I heard a noise in the room above. Decidedly it is M. and Mme. Lévy who are frightened! * * * * * The next day at seven o'clock in the morning, my orderly, Lefèvre, entered my room. He opened his mouth very wide on finding his lieutenant in a pretty white bed, a leg swinging over the side with a new boot on it---- MY LIFE BELONGS TO YOU! BAR-LE-DUC. _June_ 8, 1916.