I answered, “A hot cup of coffee and you will feel all right again.” But to myself I said, “There’ll be trouble for him; he _can’t_ any more.” And then a huge Senegalese, all spinal column and hip, waving a generous five-franc note in his hands, came along and wanted to know if there was anybody _bas mariée_ among the ministrants, as he had a day off. The service is quite variegated, as will be seen from these random specimens. Last night we walked up the hill of the ancient town. A yellow half-moon, hanging behind the fourteenth-century tower, further decorated the scene. We sat on immemorial steps, in a little V-shaped place that framed the valley and the town, and talked of war and wars. I thought how the legendary Gaul had wandered over these hills and these wooded stretches, with his battle-ax and skin about him, and long-haired women had waited his return, and children had played in front of caves. As the clock on the tower struck nine a woman appeared, waving her arms and calling out, “_Une incendie!_” and we went higher up the steps and saw masses of smoke and flames on one of the hills. It was the huge barracks for refugees that was burning, and the flames were blowing toward the near-by encampment for German prisoners. Then we went down the ancient roadway through the dim, warm, summer streets to the canteen overflowing with blue-clad men, singing, drinking, disputing. A blue mist of smoke and breath hung about them, with a smell of hot wool and worn leather—and it was the war. As I put on my apron I found myself repeating the words: _Bénis ceux qui sont morts simplement: en victimes,_ _Et n’ayant de la guerre éprouvé que l’horreur._ _Bénis ceux qui sont morts sans nourrir en leur cœur_ _La haine et tous ses maux, la gloire et tous ses crimes._ CHAPTER III THEATRICALS AND CAMOUFLAGE _27th July, evening._ This afternoon Lieutenant Robin fetched us to the theatrical representation the _Division Marocaine_ was to give. Generals thick as leaves in Vallombrosa were there in a hemicycle about the stage, pressed close by the flood of _poilus_. Terrible heat in the great, glass-roofed auditorium, a slanting afternoon sun pouring itself in like hot gold. Some thousands of spectators; thick odor of _poilu_; blind being led in; groups of one-legged men naturally gravitating to one another; groups of one-armed the same. A few _gardes-malades_ from the hospitals, and ourselves the only women in the audience.