I understood that glory consists in doing what others have done, in being able to say, "I, too." * * * * * * Three days went by in this "rest camp." I got used to an existence crowded with exercises in which we were living gear-wheels; crowded also with fatigues; already I was forgetting my previous existence.
On the Friday at three o'clock we were paraded in marching order in the school yard.

Great stones, detached from walls and arches, lay about the forsaken grass like tombs.

Hustled by the wind, we were reviewed by the captain, who fumbled in our cartridge-pouches and knapsacks with the intention of giving imprisonment to those who had not the right quantity of cartridges and iron rations.

In the evening we set off, laughing and singing, along the great curves of the road.

At night we arrived swaying with fatigue and savagely silent, at a slippery and interminable ascent which stood out against stormy rain-clouds as heavy as dung-hills.