“Sounds like a wedding feast,” said the grateful soldier.

So it comes about that Fouillade is agitated by the vinous memories into which he has plunged, which recall to him as well the dear perfume of garlic on that far-off table.  The vapors of the blue wine in big bottles, and the liqueur wines so delicately varied, mount to his head amid the sluggish and mournful storm that fills the barn.

Suddenly he calls to mind that there is settled in the village where they are quartered a tavern-keeper who is a native of Beziers, called Magnac.  Magnac had said to him, “Come and see me, mon camarade, one of these mornings, and we’ll drink some wine from down there, we will!  I’ve several bottles of it, and you shall tell me what you think of it.”

This sudden prospect dazzles Fouillade.  Through all his length runs a thrill of delight, as though he had found the way of salvation.  Drink the wine of the South—­of his own particular South, even—­drink much of it—­it would be so good to see life rosy again, if only for a day!  Ah yes, he wants wine; and he gets drunk in a dream.

But as he goes out he collides at the entry with Corporal Broyer, who is running down the street like a peddler, and shouting at every opening, “Morning parade!”

The company assembles and forms in squares on the sticky mound where the traveling kitchen is sending soot into the rain.  “I’ll go and have a drink after parade,” says Fouillade to himself.

And he listens listlessly, full of his plan, to the reading of the report.  But carelessly as he listens, he hears the officer read, “It is absolutely forbidden to leave quarters before 5 p.m. and after 8 p.m.,” and he hears the captain, without noticing the murmur that runs round the poilus, add this comment on the order:  “This is Divisional Headquarters.  However many there are of you, don’t show yourselves.  Keep under cover.  If the General sees you in the street, he will have you put to fatigues at once.  He must not see a single soldier.  Stay where you are all day in your quarters.  Do what you like as long as no one sees you—­no one!”

We go back into the barn.

* * * * * *

Two o’clock.  It is three hours yet, and then it will be totally dark, before one may risk going outside without being punished.

Shall we sleep while waiting?  Fouillade is sleepy no longer; the hope of wine has shaken him up.  And then, if one sleeps in the day, he will not sleep at night.  No!  To lie with your eyes open is worse than a nightmare.  The weather gets worse; wind and rain increase, without and within.

Then what?  If one may not stand still, nor sit down, nor lie down, nor go for a stroll, nor work—­what?

Deepening misery settles on the party of benumbed and tired soldiers.  They suffer to the bone, nor know what to do with their bodies.  “Nom de Dieu, we’re badly off!” is the cry of the derelicts—­a lamentation, an appeal for help.