Suddenly.... What was happening? Something whistled past.
"Lie down!"
I threw myself down, and the men too, without waiting for the order. One did it instinctively.
"Testudos! Testudos!" bellowed Henriot, in an extraordinarily shrill voice.
There was a gigantic explosion close at hand; the ground shook. We were lying pêle-mêle, wherever we'd happened to fall, in groups of eight or ten, and covering much too much ground.
"Close! Close!" I shouted. "Glue yourselves on to each other."
But the ground was shaken again, some flints were sent flying against us. No one stirred. What an instant that was. I hardly dared to look round. As far as the eye could see our men were scattered over the ground in little driblets in the same way in which water spilt on a pavement trickles into tiny pools.
I had predicted that I would be clear-headed.
Shells poured from the radiant sky, preceded by their awe-inspiring blast. We realised which were meant for us, and would fall within a radius of two or three hundred yards. If a single one hit the mark nothing would be left of us but a bleeding mass. O God of Chance! I humbly placed myself in His hands. Second after second passed in the expectation of annihilation. Then I recovered a certain amount of detachment in the thought that I had lost all control over my fate. My thoughts were in a whirl. Life was a fine thing. I might have employed the time allotted to me very differently. My youth contained nothing. I detested Laquarrière. I had made a mess of my share of existence! And mixed with these regrets was a new hope hard to explain.