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By Root 1923 0

Sapin, with his doleful air, came to warn the men in his section that as any issue of supplies was impossible they would have to manage with their marching rations. Apparently the supply convoy was stuck on the road because of the bad weather. As for the herd of cattle, they must have got lost owing to contradictory orders. It came out later that as the 5th and 12th corps had gone up to Rethel that day, where the general headquarters was to be billeted, all the provisions had drained towards that town, together with the population, all agog to see the Emperor, with the result that the country had emptied itself before the eyes of the 7th: no meat left, no bread, no people even. And as the last straw, by some misunderstanding, supplies for the commissariat had been sent to Le Chêne-Populeux. Throughout the campaign this was the continual despair of the poor quartermasters, about whom all the soldiers complained, and for the most part their only offence was that they reached agreed places dead on time, but the troops never went there.

‘You bloody swine!’ repeated Jean, beside himself with rage. ‘It’s just what you deserve and you aren’t worth all the trouble I’m going to have to root something out for you, for after all it’s my job not to let you starve to death on the road.’

He went off to explore as any good corporal should, taking with him Pache, whom he liked for his gentleness, although he did find him a bit too given to priests.

But a minute or so earlier Loubet had spotted a little farm two or three hundred metres away, one of the last habitations of Contreuve, where he thought he could make out quite a bit of trade going on. He got hold of Lapoulle and said:

‘Let’s bugger off on our own. I’ve an idea there’s something to scrounge over there.’

Maurice was left to give an eye to the pan of boiling water, with orders to keep up the fire.

He sat on his blanket with his boot and sock off so that his bad place could dry. He was interested in watching the camp, with all the squads running about now that they were not expecting any issue of food. The truth was dawning on him that some were continually going without everything while others lived in perpetual abundance, according to the foresight and adroitness of the corporal and his men. In the enormous amount of activity going on round him, in and out between stacked arms and tents, he saw some who had not even been able to light themselves a fire, others, already resigned, who had bedded down for the night, but in contrast others busy eating with great relish something or other, but certainly something good. What also struck him was the good order of the reserve artillery camped higher up on the bluff. The setting sun appeared between two clouds and lit up the guns from which the artillerymen had already cleaned off all the mud from the roads.

Meanwhile General Bourgain-Desfeuilles, the brigade commander, had installed himself comfortably in the little farmhouse that Loubet and his mates had their eye on. He had found a quite acceptable bed and was at table in front of a large omelette and roast chicken, which put him in a charming good humour, and as Colonel de Vineuil happened to be there about some service detail he had invited him to dinner. So they were both eating, waited on by a big fair-haired yokel who had only been working for the farmer for three days, having said he was an Alsatian, a refugee displaced by the disaster of Froeschwiller. The general talked freely in front of this man, discussed the army’s march and then asked him about the route and distances, forgetting that he was not a native of the Ardennes. The total ignorance displayed by the general’s questions finally upset the colonel, for he had lived in Mézières. He gave a few exact pieces of information which drew the cry from the general:

‘Well, isn’t it silly? How can you expect us to fight in a terrain we don’t know!’

The colonel made a vague gesture of despair. He knew that immediately war was declared they had issued to every officer maps of Germany, but certainly not one possessed a map