"Halloa! I was looking for you! If you want to send your letters, Dagomert is there on the road." He was the brigade motor-cyclist. "I'll go with you," I said. Dagomert, a tall, pale fellow, with a comical expression, good-humouredly undertook our commission. "Hand 'em over. I've got piles more already. I hope to have the luck to come across a post-office. They keep me on the run all right. I've just come from Censenvoye. It's a business getting along the road with all these troops, too!" I asked him if he knew anything about the battle. How were things going? He exclaimed: "We've just given them a fine doing!" "Seriously?" A thrill ran through me. But I mistrusted these tales. "We saw some wounded belonging to the 130th yesterday.... They didn't think it much fun!" I objected. "I can understand that! Their regiment was wiped out!" "Well, then?" "That was just at the beginning! It was up to the Bosches to advance. We let them cross the river.... Heavens! How they swarmed! Then all at once the 75's began to talk!... Their bridges were smashed up at once. And the arms and legs and heads that were flying about!... It appears to have been highly entertaining!" "And now?" "We're pursuing them. Bringing up reinforcements, and masses of artillery!" He added: "But we've been badly cut up!" "In ours?" "If you saw the ambulance, just over there!" Frémont interrupted: "Halloa! That our lot starting?" "Yes, there was something doing down there." "_Au revoir_, Dagomert, old chap!" We hurried along. The men had got their packs on, and were assembling without any more signs of emotion than when starting for an ordinary route march. The lieutenant's excitement was in striking contrast with the phlegmatic appearance of the rest. He was fussing and running up and down. "Entrenching tools.... Entrenching tools in your belts! Cartridges where you can get at them!" "Don't you worry!" murmured Lamalou testing the mechanism of his rifle. Henriot came up at once. "Made up their minds at last. Not a bit too early either." He had a wild look in his eye. It pleased me to excite him still more: "Things are not going badly you know!" "What! What! Have you heard something?" I repeated the information the motor-cyclist had given us. He hurriedly consulted his map. "On the bank, you say? We're pursuing them? Oh, but that means a great victory!" The captain blew his whistle. We formed into a semi-circle. "My friends ..." he began. Armed with a piece of straw, Humel was tickling his neighbour's neck. This childishness shocked me. The captain said only a few words. He was nothing of an orator. I was afraid for a moment that his speech might end in gibbering. He recovered himself and concluded. And the men seemed moved by it. It didn't take much to do the trick! The company formed up again, by platoons, in columns of four. I considered my companions, one by one, with passionate curiosity.