Besse got a bit of shell that went clean through his belly and
stomach. Barthlemy and Baubex got it in the head and neck. We passed
the night skedaddling up and down the trench at full speed, to dodge
the showers. And little Godefroy--did you know him?--middle of his
body blown away. He was emptied of blood on the spot in an instant,
like a bucket kicked over. Little as he was, it was remarkable how
much blood he had, it made a stream at least fifty meters long.
Gougnard got his legs cut up by one explosion. They picked him up
not quite dead. That was at the listening post. I was there on duty
with them. But when that shell fell I had gone into the trench to
ask the time. I found my rifle, that I'd left in my place, bent
double, as if some one had folded it in his hands, the barrel like a
corkscrew, and half of the stock in sawdust. The smell of fresh
blood was enough to bring your heart up."

"And Mondain--him, too?"

"Mondain--that was the day after, yesterday in fact, in a dug-out
that a shell smashed in. He was lying down, and his chest was
crushed. Have they told you about Franco, who was alongside Mondain?
The fall of earth broke his spine. He spoke again after they'd got
him out and set him down. He said, with his head falling to one
side, 'I'm dying,' and he was gone. Vigile was with them, too; his
body wasn't touched, but they found him with his head completely
flattened out, flat as a pancake, and huge-as big as that. To see it
spread out on the ground, black and distorted, it made you think of
his shadow--the shadow one gets on the ground sometimes when one
walks with a lantern at night."

"Vigile--only Class 1913--a child! And Mondain and Franco--such good