III—"I FOLLOWED THE FRENCH ARMY"
When I awoke the sun had already risen. Looking through an opening in one of the sides of the truck, my gaze encountered an immense plain, neither the beginning nor the end of which I could distinguish. I asked a man who was next to me where we were, and he told me not far from Besançon. Half an hour later we entered that place. It was there that I saw a convoy of automobiles—about a hundred—pass by. The train set off once more, and an hour's travelling brought us within sight of the first forts of Belfort. An hour and a half later we reached our destination.
Unperceived I was able to slip through the exit on to the square in front of the railway station. An ambulance was drawn up there. Drawing near, I raised the covering and saw a number of soldiers stretched at full length. In answer to my question as to what was the matter, they replied that they were ill and had just left the hospital; they were being "evacuated" to other towns. Thereupon I wandered forth to make a tour of the town and discover the object of my search.
The first corps I encountered was the 8th Regiment of Territorial Infantry. I followed it and found it was quartered on the ground floor of an hotel in the Rue Thiers. At the end of the day, which I spent with the men, a sergeant said to me:
"Eh! young man, you don't belong here?"
"No, sir," I replied.
"Where do you come from?"
"Monaco."
"Why did you leave Monaco for Belfort?"
"To go on campaign."