Someone announced that Denais, the big fellow in the 19th, had been killed right at the beginning by a splinter of shrapnel. "Denais!" I was thunder-struck. We had been bed-neighbours for a week, once, in the infirmary. We had seen a lot of him at F---- even during the last few days. I could see his face contracting at the notes of the "Funeral March." I heard him cry: "Oh, shut up! It's idiotic!..." And now he had "gone west." What struck me most was that his disappearance did not seem to affect any one. Not a single regret was expressed. At the "Peloton" he had always, like myself, been one of those who knew how to get out of things, difficult--again like me--to "catch out," like me polite and sarcastic. General opinion classed us together as thorough egoists. "And how about your foot?" Guillaumin asked me. "How's it getting on?" It had not entered my head again! "All the better! Because now we shall have to fight chiefly on our legs!" "Do you think so?" "We shall have to follow them up!" "Rot!" He looked at me. "By Jove, you don't look much as if you realised that we have just gained a victory." I shrugged my shoulders, and he continued: "It must be rather a knock for the Bosches! A repetition of Mulhouse...." I poured cold water on his enthusiasm. The enemy had retired of themselves and had not been forced to by us; a manoeuvre on their part, perhaps. And we saw only such a small part, a very small part. Guillaumin grew heated and hurled himself into nebulous strategical problems. I enjoyed urging him on. At last he almost lost his temper. "We'll go and ask the subaltern!" Henriot was coming towards us just having left an officers' confabulation. "Well?" "Ah!" he exclaimed, raising his cap, "our success is even more complete than we had hoped!" "Hm!" Guillaumin smacked me on the back. Descroix and Humel, and all that lot, joined us again. "I've got some details," Henriot announced breathlessly. "Here...." His recital only confirmed the version I had had from Dagomert. After a partial repulse, after allowing the Germans to cross the Othain, and the Loison, possibly for tactical reasons, we had suddenly taken the offensive. The enemy had retired in disorder. One regiment had been completely wiped out by fire.... Henriot quoted the regimental number: "The 23rd Württembergers!" We had taken some prisoners, and booty, and captured field-and machine-guns, according to the reports. During the hullabaloo which followed, I asked: "So things are going alright?" Humel sneered. "Oh, really, nothing pleases that chap!" I continued: "It's all very well, but who knows what's happening elsewhere?" "And what's happening in Timbuctoo?" "Round about Nancy? And in the North?" Guillaumin laughed: "Dreher will have it that we can't be equally lucky everywhere!" Henriot roared with laughter! "Oh rot, they're in the soup!"