We knew that the blockhouse was going to blow up and we wanted to be far away for the débris were likely to reach us and crush us.
Suddenly, terribly, came the explosion.
It was fortunate for us that the alarm had held us close to the bank. Whole blocks of granite were hurled into the middle of the river just where we would have been. We were too near and too low and everything went over us.
The violence of the waves tore us from the bank and drove us into the strength of the current, and we weren’t fired on once. The whole garrison had been blown up.
At daybreak, three o’clock in the morning, Lieutenant Delpos woke up the major.
“Major,” he said, “it was a machine-gun emplacement. But it is no more. If you will allow me, I’m going to bed. I couldn’t get any sleep over there; there was too much noise.”
CHAPTER XVI
A COMMANDER
At the beginning of June, the colonel’s report informed us that the major of Battalion C ... had been assigned to the ... first Colonials.