In the Field (1914-1915) | Page 9

me? I expect I shall come into the middle of the fight
when I get over that ridge. Shall I duck my head when I hear the bullets
whistling and the shrapnel bursting around me? I am determined to
play the man. I know Wattrelot is close by, trotting behind me. He
mustn't see the least symptom of nervousness in me."
The noise of the guns became louder. "By the way!... I wonder what
Wattrelot feels like!" I turned to look at him, and found his face a bit
pale; but directly he saw me glance at his blue north-country eyes, his
face lit up with a broad smile.
"Here we are, sir."
"Yes, Wattrelot, here we are. I'm sure you don't know what fear is!"
"Oh! no, sir."
"That's all right. Forward then! To the guns!"
We passed through a hamlet full of waggons and motors. Some
orderlies were loading them up with rations and boxes. On one of these
I happened to see the number of my own army corps. "I'm all right
then," thought I, and turned to an adjutant of the Army Service Corps,
who was superintending the work.
"Do you know where the Staff of the ---- Corps is?" I asked.
The man shrugged his shoulders to show that he didn't, and that he
didn't care. What did it matter to him? His job was to get the goods
loaded, forget nothing, and then to go to his appointed post where he
would have to wait for further orders to unload his stuff in the evening.
He had enough to do. What did anything else matter to him? However,
he pointed in a vague manner: "They went over there...."

Off I started again over the wide undulating plain. The noise of the
cannonade became louder and louder, and I now perceived traces of the
work of death. At a turning of the road there were a couple of dead
horses that had been dragged into the ditch. I cannot say how painful
the sight was to me. Apparently a dead horse at the seat of war is a
trifle, and no doubt I should very soon see it with indifference. But
these were the first I had seen, and I could not help casting a glance of
pity at them. Poor beasts! A month before they had been showing off
their fine points in the well-kept stables of the artillery barracks. When
I saw them their stiffened corpses bore traces of all their sufferings.
Their harness had rubbed great sores in their flesh, in more places than
one. Their glazed eyes seemed to be still appealing for pity. They had
fallen down exhausted, finding it impossible to keep up with their
fellows. They had been quickly unharnessed, so as not to block up the
road; had been dragged on to the sunburnt grass, and it was there no
doubt the death-agony that had already lasted for some hours had come
to an end.
We went on, and, in the distance, here and there on the plain, which
now stretched before us for miles, we saw more of them. I wondered
how it was that so many horses had fallen in so short a time. It was not
a month since mobilisation had been ordered, and hardly ten days since
operations had begun. What a huge effort then the army must already
have made!
But I soon forgot the poor beasts, for we were nearing the scene of the
struggle. Behind the shelter of every swell in the ground were
ammunition waggons. I went up to one of these and was astonished at
what I saw. The limbers, which are always so smart in the barrack-yard,
with their grey paint, were covered with a thick coating of dust or of
hardened mud. The horses, dirty and thin, seemed ready to drop. Their
necks were covered with sores, and they were hanging their heads to
eat, but seemed not to have strength enough to take their food. Drivers
and non-commissioned officers were sprawling about, sleeping heavily.
Their cadaverous faces, beards of a week's growth and drawn features
showed even in their sleep how exhausted they were. I could hardly
recognise the original colour of their dingy uniforms under the

accumulation of stains and dust.
It was now eight o'clock in the morning. The sunshine was beating hot
upon the sleepers, but they seemed indifferent to this. They had simply
pulled the peaks of their caps over their eyes and were snoring away,
with their noses in the air and their mouths open. Beasts and men
together formed a group of creatures that seemed utterly depressed and
worn out. I could never have believed it possible to sleep under such
conditions, with the guns booming unceasingly in all directions.
I