Cramone, threatening his team with his whip, repeated for the twentieth time:
"I'll teach you how to behave, you brutes!"
"There's another dish lost," shouted Millon. "Who's the idiot who didn't pick it up yesterday?"
"Can't you pull your infernal mules back a bit?... We can't limber up.... Never seen such a fool!..."
The men pushed and tugged at their horses, which, face to the wind, continued pulling this way and that in a vain attempt to prevent the rain stinging their ears. Bréjard lost his temper.
"Lord, what a set! Can't you keep your horses straight?... Look at that off-leader!... Can't you see he's got entangled?..."
"Thought we were going to have a rest to-day!"
"I suppose the Germans are resting, aren't they?"
The start was difficult. During the night the wheels of the vehicles had sunk deeper and deeper into the softening soil, and the horses' hoofs kept slipping on the slope.
Once on the road the battery broke into a trot, the mud splashing in sprays from under the feet of the horses. Some of the gunners, attacked by colic, stopped in the ditches, and then, still doing up their breeches, ran along by the side of the column in order to overtake their vehicles.