Another obsession, this one very ordinary and almost humiliating, was the rubbed place on my heel. It was not cured and I had struggled in vain to break the counter. The same rub at each step. On the uneven, stony surface of the bad roads we were following, I often made a false step. So great was my exhaustion that I no longer even took the trouble to throw my weight on to the tip of my foot in order to lessen the painful contact. A high road at last. In a neighbouring field we caught sight of some teams and forage and ammunition waggons. "An artillery park," Henriot shouted across Bouillon's head. A little farther on we passed a troop of cavalry wrapped in their long dark blue greatcoats. Our _poilus_ expressed their envy of them aloud. "War's a picnic to those chaps!" It was still quite dark--we were going through a forest when the cannonade started again, abrupt and violent. So near this time. Everyone started at it. It rumbled and roared on every side. It felt exactly like being in the middle of a battle. And what a striking contrast there was between the silence, the sweet-scented air, and the calm of the woods, and this crashing and thundering! We were alone on this road, the moon had just risen; a gentle breeze caressed the little flowers on the slope, and the moss damp with dew. Day was breaking when we left the wood. We advanced across a slightly sloping upland. "Halt!" Rows and rows of piled arms stretched away into the distance. There was a brigade, or perhaps a division there. We counted on a rest worth having. But a whirring noise was heard. We looked up. One, no two German aeroplanes, like the silhouettes of evil-looking birds, were easily recognisable. A neighbouring company fired a volley at them. They continued to flutter above us turning and twisting insolently. The men shook their fists at them. And the same thought occurred to us all: What were our aeroplanes doing? A third Taube arrived and dropped a rocket. "The devil!" "Look out!" shouted Henriot. "We've been marked right enough! We shall catch it hot!" The alarm was given. We scattered at the double and threw ourselves down, and shivered in the icy dawn. The expected shells did not come. The captain sent for the subaltern. "To give him a wigging," said Descroix. Playoust jeered. "He talked of catching it hot! I see he was quite right about it!" The warning had sufficed. The big detachment collected there, seemed to have evaporated. Some platoons were disappearing ahead over the neighbouring ridge. Were we to follow? Not at all. We were taken back, on the contrary, as far as the wood. We all went into it, and the order was given to pile arms. We might rest, but were not to go far away! CHAPTER VII I EXAMINE MY CONSCIENCE I went to lie down a little way off, at the foot of a tree. At last I had a free moment. At last I belonged to myself!