The end of the missive breathed a tenderness no less proud or strong. Jeannine knew through the _communiqués_, of the brilliant affair at Mangiennes. She guessed that I had taken part in it, that I was not wounded--(No! My good fortune lent me too great a halo!) By some mysterious intuition she ended up by counselling me to bear the ill-fortune, which might be near at hand, courageously. What did she know of it? What presentiment had she? I caught a glimpse of the fate of returning troops, the ruin of our first hopes. Still distant hypotheses! And then it would have needed greater misfortunes than that to damp me. I was filled with enthusiasm. Guillaumin had not lied. What rapture to consecrate myself to thee, to thy defence, my noble France, incarnate in a young face!... * * * * * I turned my steps towards my section; I was coming down to earth, returning to grim reality.... What a sight met my eyes! The piles of arms had been broken everywhere; yonder, the neighbouring battalion was dispersing in the greatest disorder; our lot, disbanded too, were jostling each other on the road. A regular panic! Guillaumin, bareheaded, and haggard.... "I was looking for you!" he shouted. "What do you say to this?" "What? What do you mean?" "They're firing on us!" "Who?" Dragging me along, he gasped: "I've got your rifle and your things. Come along. Come along!" We rushed down. "Do you hear?" The echoes of explosions. "The 'Taube'?" "That was the beggar that marked us! But ... they talked of our going back.... I don't think! They're close on our heels...! Their artillery, the 'coal boxes'!" He pinched my arm till it bled: "And we've been flying all night!" I buckled on my pack, in a dazed way as we ran along, and took my rifle from his. Henriot caught us up: "They're coming up from the south too. We're surrounded!" He was choking. Playoust stopped in front of us and chucked down his pack exclaiming: "Wot's the use o' goin' on? We're goners!" Some of the men followed his example. "You thundering lunatic!" I shouted to him. Guillaumin shook his fist at him. I shouted: "Keep your rifles, lads! The war's beginning in earnest now, when you've got to fight for your crops and homes, for everything that's dear to you!" Two or three men who had dropped their arms picked them up. We reached a cross-road. Our _poilus_ were grouped round us. "Fall in, No. 3 section." "Nicely in the soup, we are!" someone exclaimed. "Possibly! But we'll get out of it somehow. Where there's a will, there's a way!" They looked at each other blankly. Then Judsi smacked the barrel of his rifle with a swagger. "So the blighters think they're going to give us a doin'? We'll show 'em wot's wot!" I could have hugged him! PART III _BOOK VII_ _August 25th-September 2nd_ CHAPTER I IN RETREAT