"I am stating results. The war has been going on for just five weeks and where have we got to? We've been beaten everywhere and thrown back on our final redoubt. The amount that was said about defending the least particle of ground foot by foot, till the last extremity! The extremity has soon come. Let's establish the balance: Lille, Arras, Amiens, Beauvais, St. Quentin, Mézières, Rheims--by this time probably Meaux and Châlons; possibly Nancy! A quarter of France invaded. No, I tell you, there's nothing to be done. They were ready; that's all. They knew what they wanted." I interrupted him, quivering all over. It was my turn now to copy Guillaumin. "Then, according to you, everything is lost?" "Oh," he said, "the men are first rate. There's nothing lost by admitting that. They will probably hold out to the end, in face of all hope, for honour's sake." "And you'll be one of the first to do so," said Miquel. "Just like everyone else. It's in our blood. I see our line of resistance on the Loire, then on the Garonne. The wretched government will have to move house again." "How you run on! And Paris?" "It's lucky they didn't bear straight down on it. They'd be entering it at this very moment." "Perhaps they had some reason...." "Bah!" "All our armies on their flank." "Our poor armies! A lot there is left of them!" "Really? Look at our regiment. Is it at full strength? Have its numbers been made up to what they were at the start? Yes. Well, it's the same thing everywhere. All the depôts have supplied men. As we fell back we recuperated our reserves while, as long as their communications go on extending, their front loses in density. They are no longer so immensely superior to us in numbers as they were at the beginning, and their movements are anything but free. Maubeuge was not taken yesterday." "But it will be to-day." "One day gained." "Oh, yes! That's a good joke, that idea about holding out." "Holding out, exactly. We've got to the thirty-fifth day of war. According to the German plans, we were to be annihilated by that date. Are we? No. There are all kinds of things lacking." "All kinds?" Fortin said ironically. "Our line is not broken anywhere; we have only wheeled. You spoke of Nancy just now. They'd better come and take it from Castelnau! Do you really want to know what I think? I think they're the ones that are in the soup." A buzz of scepticism greeted my declaration. I continued: "First of all, here they are forced to take how many?--three or four army corps back to the East." "To the East? Why?" "Against the Russians." "Where did you get hold of that idea?" "In the papers." "Are they to be had?" "If you look for them." I shook them. "You're not curious! You know nothing, then? Not even you, Fortin? Really? Nothing of our Allies' successes?" He raised himself. "But look here, are these tales serious?" "What d'you mean? Their advance exceeds all expectations."