"What is the use of staying?" asked an old man querulously. "They'll burn everything just the same, and I'd rather find myself ruined and roofless here, but free, rather than back yonder where I should be in the hands of the Germans. Besides, I've my daughter-in-law to think of--the wife of my son, who is a gunner like you. She's with child--seven months gone--and when she heard the guns begin yesterday the pains came on. At first I thought she was going to be confined; but it passed off. But I thought we had better leave at once. These beasts of Germans, who violate and disembowel women ... who knows whether they would have respected her condition?... Last night we found a road-mender's hut to sleep in, but I don't know what we shall do to-night.... And I'm afraid she'll get ill. Just now she's sleeping in the cart. I must take care that she doesn't get ill! My son left her in my charge." Pointing in the direction our column was following, I asked the old man: "Where does this road lead to?" "Where?" he replied, a wrathful look suddenly coming into his eyes. "Why, Châlons and Paris ... the whole of France!" And, shaking his head, he added bitterly: "Oh, my God!" "You see they're half again as many as we are." He did not answer immediately, but, after a moment or two, he said: "I saw '70.... It's just the same as in '70." * * * * * The battery rolled on till we had crossed the whole of Argonne. At Servon, a village on the fringe of the woods, where the infantry were making a long halt, we stopped for a few minutes. It was two o'clock. We led the horses down to the drinking-place, near a mill on the bank of the green Aisne. The animals waded breast-high into the stream, where they stood puffing and snorting, splashing the men, who, with rolled-up trousers, were also paddling with enjoyment in the cool water. Finally, near Ville-sur-Tourbe, we parked our guns. Presumably we were to entrain the same evening at the station close by. The forebodings which had seized me in the morning when I saw the enemy advancing behind us had in no way diminished. Were we going to entrain and leave the road open to the invaders? Would they not surround the troops operating in Belgium and those advancing in Alsace?... But were the French still in Belgium and in Alsace? How we wished that we could know the truth, whatever it might be! * * * * * To-night the men were surly and despondent, and one and all were anxious to escape fatigue duty. Déprez found himself confronted on all sides by the same sulkiness and apathy. "Tuvache, go and fetch water!" "But I went yesterday!... It's more than half a mile!... Why can't some of the others have a turn?..." "Well, Laillé, did you go yesterday?" "No." "Right then, off you go!" "Oh, but...." "I'm not asking for your opinion, you know...." "Some of 'em never go...." "I tell you once again to go and fetch water!"