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By Root 1349 0

from its trainer and gallops off across the open country. The boiler had plenty of water in it, and the coal that had been put on the fire was burning fiercely; for the next half hour the pressure continued to rise alarmingly, and the speed became frightening. The guard must have been overcome with tiredness and fallen asleep. The soldiers, piled together in the wagons, were becoming increasingly drunk; the crazy speed of the train seemed suddenly to lift their spirits, and they sang louder than ever. They shot through Maromme like a streak of lightning. The train no longer whistled as it approached signals or stations; it simply forged ahead like a dumb animal charging head down at some obstacle that barred its way. On and on it went, unstoppable, as if gradually driven to a frenzy by the harsh sound of its own breathing.

They were due to take on water at Rouen. Everyone watched with horror as the mad train rushed through the station, belching out smoke and sparks, with no driver or fireman, and its string of cattle trucks filled with soldiers, all singing patriotic songs at the top of their voices. The soldiers were off to war, and at that speed they would be out there on the Rhine sooner than they thought. People on the platform stood open-mouthed, waving their arms. Then suddenly everyone realized that if the train was out of control and had no driver, it would never get through the station at Sotteville. As at all stations with large goods depots, there were always shunting operations going on there, with wagons and engines blocking the lines. They rushed to the telegraph room to send a warning, just in time for a goods train to be backed off the main line and on to a siding. The runaway train could already be heard in the distance, roaring through the two tunnels outside Rouen and rushing madly towards them, like some powerful, irresistible force that could no longer be stopped. It swept through the station, avoiding obstacles to either side of it, and plunged into the night. Gradually its roar faded into the distance.

By now all the telegraph bells along the line were ringing, and hearts missed a beat as news came through of a ghost train that had been seen passing through Rouen and Sotteville at high speed. People shook with fear; there was an express on the line ahead, and there would surely be a collision. The train, like a wild boar running through a forest, continued on its headlong flight, heedless of signals at red and detonators. At Oissel it almost collided with a light engine. At Pont-de-l’Arche, people watched it go by in sheer terror; it showed no sign of slowing down. Once again it disappeared from view, on and on into the darkness of the night, whither no one knew.

What did it matter if a few people were killed as it went on its way? Was it not travelling towards the future? Why worry over a little spilled blood? The train ran on without a driver, on and on, like some mindless, unseeing beast, let loose on a field of carnage, with its burden of cannon-fodder, the soldiers, dead with fatigue, drunk and singing at the top of their voices.

Notes

CHAPTER I

1 Quartier de l‘Europe: A district in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, so called because the streets are named after major European cities. Many of them are mentioned in the novel. The station, which, curiously, is never named, is the Gare Saint-Lazare, the Paris terminus of the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de l’Ouest, which operated trains to northern Brittany and Normandy. 2. foot-warmer depot: In the early days of rail travel (the action of the novel takes place between 1869 and 1870), carriages were not heated. For a small charge, the railway companies provided foot-warmers — flat, metal containers filled with hot water or, later, with a solution of soda acetate. Passengers were also advised to bring travelling rugs to protect themselves against the cold. It was not until the 1890s that carriages were regularly heated by hot water supplied from the locomotive.

3 Pont de l‘Europe: A huge iron bridge, designed by Adolphe Jullien (1803-79),