"Are you sure?"
They looked out the car window and scarcely had time to see, on the other track, a trainload of wounded Germans going the other way.
"You see, they are maimed like us——"
The soldiers in the two trains regarded each other closely without a word.
Hardly had the train of the German grands blessés started to leave the station than a military band began to play the "Marseillaise"!
Yes, the "Marseillaise"—They raised their heads and there wasn't a one who did not hold himself in an effort not to cry——
Then the station became crowded with persons who wished to see the grands blessés. They distribute flowers, cigarettes, little tri-colored flags, small cakes, chocolate, colored postal cards—The station gets more and more crowded and the excitement grows.
"Ah! we are not in that boche country any more, Patachon—I begin to breathe easier already——"
But they're all more or less amazed at this great bustle to which they are ill-accustomed, and for the first time they see human beings who have sincere pity for their misery.