"Look out," Guillaumin whispered to me. "They're lengthening their range!" We had stopped, silent and nonplussed. The captain galloped along the line. "To fifty paces--extend." Henriot bellowed, repeating the order. There was no panic. I think no one had fully realised yet that those slight puffs which had appeared were a direct menace to us. We had taken up the extended order and went on marching, but with rather broken ranks. "Close up! Close up!" shouted Henriot. He was running. I noticed that he had drawn his sword. It was very funny. Did he think that he was about to charge? He tried to put it back into the sheath. He stumbled. The men nudged each other with their elbows. A pint of good blood! Our "connecting file" rushed up. "Blob formation!" Henriot, who was still struggling with his scabbard, hesitated. Then he shouted: "Left incline! No. Right incline! No. As you were!" "He's all at sea!" said Guillaumin. Suddenly.... What was happening? Something whistled past. "Lie down!" I threw myself down, and the men too, without waiting for the order. One did it instinctively. "Testudos! Testudos!" bellowed Henriot, in an extraordinarily shrill voice. There was a gigantic explosion close at hand; the ground shook. We were lying _pêle-mêle_, wherever we'd happened to fall, in groups of eight or ten, and covering much too much ground. "Close! Close!" I shouted. "Glue yourselves on to each other." But the ground was shaken again, some flints were sent flying against us. No one stirred. What an instant that was. I hardly dared to look round. As far as the eye could see our men were scattered over the ground in little driblets in the same way in which water spilt on a pavement trickles into tiny pools. I had predicted that I would be clear-headed. Shells poured from the radiant sky, preceded by their awe-inspiring blast. We realised which were meant for us, and would fall within a radius of two or three hundred yards. If a single one hit the mark nothing would be left of us but a bleeding mass. O God of Chance! I humbly placed myself in His hands. Second after second passed in the expectation of annihilation. Then I recovered a certain amount of detachment in the thought that I had lost all control over my fate. My thoughts were in a whirl. Life was a fine thing. I might have employed the time allotted to me very differently. My youth contained nothing. I detested Laquarrière. I had made a mess of my share of existence! And mixed with these regrets was a new hope hard to explain. How many minutes had passed. There was a lull. A voice was raised; it was Bouillon's. "Nobody killed!" The relief of it! We raised ourselves up on to our knees. Some aeroplanes were circling above us. Taubes, of course! "Up you get!" The neighbouring section had started off again. We advanced rapidly. Our connecting file came towards us at the double. "By sections!" Henriot repeated: "Dreher, Guillaumin, by sections!"