He got up and repeated the order. Nobody stirred. He lay down again and looked at us as if asking for advice. I pretended not to notice it. The men feverishly continued to bring their rifles to the shoulder, fire them, and reload. I dropped on Moulard who was lying just behind Trichet and barely escaped hitting him at every shot he fired. Trichet drew back looking dazed, without seeming to understand. The worthy Gaudéreaux who was beside him was firing precipitously. But at what? At what? In his agitation he got his lock jammed. I took hold of his rifle which burnt my hand. It took me a long while to repair the damage and I repeated: "Why, in thunder, are you so set on playing with your trigger?" Our losses were still slight. Only one man hit, in Guillaumin's section. But on ahead I caught sight of a barbed-wire entanglement surrounding a field. An unpleasant obstacle! And it was in our sector all right! There was probably a ditch too. Henriot shouted: "Here goes for cover!" He started off courageously, and this time the men followed him. We covered the intervening space in a single rush, a foolish mistake which cost us two men. Judsi delighted his lads by imitating a horse's gallop. The bullets shrieked over our heads as we crouched in the ditch. We let off a few desultory shots on the chance of hitting something. A minute or two passed. The subaltern was worrying about how to cross this entanglement!... "It's quite simple," said Guillaumin. "Who's got the wire-nippers?" "I have," said Corporal Bouguet. Henriot hesitated: "They'd better...." "What?" "Be made use of...." "Very good, sir." Bouguet calmly got up, and climbed out of the ditch. He knelt up and set to work. "Good for you, Corporal!" shouted Bouillon. It was a thrilling moment. The bullets whizzed and whistled all round him. He was a hero. He took his time about it, and it was a miracle that he was not hit ten times over! "Will that do?" he asked. "Excellently!" He passed through the gap he had made and went and lay down in the field. How tempted I was to admire him, but I restrained the impulse. He simply had no nerves, that was all. As for me my temperament forbade such achievements.... "Our turn now," said the lieutenant. "Follow me." He made a dash and slipped through. He was not touched either. A great piece of luck. But then suddenly he lost his head and began to run forward all alone through the hail of bullets, without looking round. He went on for about fifty yards, then stopped, and disappeared into the hole made by a shell, in all probability. Yes, he had to call to us from there. His arm waved. We realised that he would never dare to come back to fetch us! "Well, now we're in command of the platoon!" Guillaumin said to me. "Let's each take charge of our men, what?" He added: "We must get on!" "Who'll go first?" I asked. "I will, if you like." He raised his voice to give his orders: