Our objective was Ornes and if it became necessary to die I avowed that I would prefer to fall in the light, my eyes turned toward the sun. "If die we must," I say to LeBlond, on leaving the dugout, "I would rather be killed outside——"
"I am with you——"
Again we traveled over a space of 350 yards in a haze of fire and smoke——
A marmite fell a few steps away, covering us with dirt—I see my comrade stagger, struck on the head with a large mass. Fortunately it is only a ball of turf which knocks him violently to the ground——
He picks himself up, and in a ringing voice:
"Yes, if that one will not get me a vacation, now, you will not be very chic!"
Some hours later we reached Ornes, having had to go through the barrage at Chambrettes, and another, of 305's, on the cavernous road along Chaume Wood. This road, so quiet a few days before, had become a veritable hell.
The village of Ornes, itself, was relatively calm that night, the infantry attacks not having begun up to the present, only between the Meuse and Herbebois Wood. The poilus waited calmly all events that might be forthcoming, always ready to do their duty stoically and simply——