I said: "Call the others!"
The signal had already been given. A torrent of men flowed in from all the different companies. There was a bench just by. I got up on to it. From there I dominated the crowd which was gathering round me in increasing numbers. Soon half the regiment was there, and some passers-by joined on. There were shouts of: "Listen! Listen!" Then a dead silence.
I began to read, subconsciously approving the way in which I raised my voice and scanned each syllable. It was the famous order of the day, which has so often been reproduced since then.
"At the moment in which a battle is beginning upon which the fate of the nation hangs.... Troops which can no longer advance must be killed where they stand rather than give ground."
Not a syllable escaped me. Not a soul asked for it to be read again. A ripple ran over this dumb throng. I jumped to the ground, and got lost in the crush. What intuition urged me to make a dash for our billets? Hardly had I crossed the threshold—how quickly things happened!—before a whistle was blown.
Humel, who was corporal of the day, ran by like a flash. "Come along! On with your pack!"
"Are we off again?"
"That's it!"
Guillaumin appeared.