I asked him a question. His eyes blazed suddenly. "Do not speak of these things! They are not to be spoken of, much less to _you_." He looked as though he hated me. "I beg your pardon, I am nervous. You must excuse me." He went away hurriedly. "Poor chap!" Professor A---- said. "It is hard for us all in this heat. And, yes, some of us have more imagination than others." A man in uniform came into the garden. He walked to a tree in the center, and stood in the shade, a long sheet of paper in his hand. There was a stir among the Jews. Those lying down got up and approached him. The women, with their children, dragged themselves nearer. Every one stopped talking. The apathy and indifference gave place to a strained attention. There was a kind of dreadful anxiety on every face--a tightening of the muscles round the eyes and mouths, as though the same horrible fear fixed the same mark there. I have never seen a crowd where personality was so stamped out by a single overmastering emotion. The gendarme began to read in a sing-song voice. "What is he saying?" I whispered. "The names of those who are to leave this afternoon," Mme. C---- replied. The garden was absolutely still except for the monotonous voice and the breathing of the crowd. Oh, yes, and the flies. It was not that I forgot the flies, only their buzzing was the ceaseless accompaniment to everything that happened in the camp. "How horrible this is!" Mme. C---- observed. "They all know it must come, but when it does, it is almost unbearable. It is truly a list of death. Many of them here cannot survive another stage of the journey in this heat. And yet they must be moved on to make place for those who are pressing on from behind. In this very crowd were five old men who were killed on the way here, by the soldiers, because they couldn't keep up with the procession. How could these civilians be expected to endure such hardships? They are townspeople, most of them having lived indoors all their lives, like you or me." "Like you or me." No, no. It was unbelievable. I could not put myself in their place. I could not imagine such insecurity--that lives could be broken in the middle in this way. "How useless it all seems!" I said.