V.

It was nearly ten o’clock up on the Plateau de l’Algerie, and still the men of Beaudoin’s company were resting supine, among the cabbages, in the field whence they had not budged since early morning.  The cross fire from the batteries on Hattoy and the peninsula of Iges was hotter than ever; it had just killed two more of their number, and there were no orders for them to advance.  Were they to stay there and be shelled all day, without a chance to see anything of the fighting?

They were even denied the relief of discharging their chassepots.  Captain Beaudoin had at last put his foot down and stopped the firing, that senseless fusillade against the little wood in front of them, which seemed entirely deserted by the Prussians.  The heat was stifling; it seemed to them that they should roast, stretched there on the ground under the blazing sky.

Jean was alarmed, on turning to look at Maurice, to see that he had declined his head and was lying, with closed eyes, apparently inanimate, his cheek against the bare earth.  He was very pale, there was no sign of life in his face.

“Hallo there! what’s the matter?”

But Maurice was only sleeping.  The mental strain, conjointly with his fatigue, had been too much for him, in spite of the dangers that menaced them at every moment.  He awoke with a start and stared about him, and the peace that slumber had left in his wide-dilated eyes was immediately supplanted by a look of startled affright as it dawned on him where he was.  He had not the remotest idea how long he had slept; all he knew was that the state from which he had been recalled to the horrors of the battlefield was one of blessed oblivion and tranquillity.

“Hallo! that’s funny; I must have been asleep!” he murmured.  “Ah! it has done me good.”

It was true that he suffered less from that pressure about his temples and at his heart, that horrible constriction that seems as if it would crush one’s bones.  He chaffed Lapoulle, who had manifested much uneasiness since the disappearance of Chouteau and Loubet and spoke of going to look for them.  A capital idea! so he might get away and hide behind a tree, and smoke a pipe!  Pache thought that the surgeons had detained them at the ambulance, where there was a scarcity of sick-bearers.  That was a job that he had no great fancy for, to go around under fire and collect the wounded!  And haunted by a lingering superstition of the country where he was born, he added that it was unlucky to touch a corpse; it brought death.

“Shut up, confound you!” roared Lieutenant Rochas.  “Who is going to die?”

Colonel de Vineuil, sitting his tall horse, turned his head and gave a smile, the first that had been seen on his face that morning.  Then he resumed his statue-like attitude, waiting for orders as impassively as ever under the tumbling shells.