Under Fire

Contents


I. The Vision
II. In the Earth
III. The Return
IV. Volpatte and Fouillade
V. Sanctuary
VI. Habits
VII. Entraining
VIII. On Leave
IX. The Anger of Volpatte
X. Argoval
XI. The Dog
XII. The Doorway
XIII. The Big Words
XIV. Of Burdens
XV. The Egg
XVI. An Idyll
XVII. The Sap
XVIII. A Box of Matches
XIX. Bombardment
XX. Under Fire
XXI. The Refuge
XXII. Going About
XXIII. The Fatigue-Party
XXIV. The Dawn




UNDER FIRE



I

The Vision


MONT BLANC, the Dent du Midi, and the Aiguille Verte look across at the
bloodless faces that show above the blankets along the gallery of the
sanatorium. This roofed-in gallery of rustic wood-work on the first
floor of the palatial hospital is isolated in Space and overlooks the
world. The blankets of fine wool--red, green, brown, or white--from
which those wasted cheeks and shining eyes protrude are quite still. No
sound comes from the long couches except when some one coughs, or that
of the pages of a book turned over at long and regular intervals, or
the undertone of question and quiet answer between neighbors, or now
and again the crescendo disturbance of a daring crow, escaped to the
balcony from those flocks that seem threaded across the immense
transparency like chaplets of black pearls.

Silence is obligatory. Besides, the rich and high-placed who have come
here from all the ends of the earth, smitten by the same evil, have
lost the habit of talking. They have withdrawn into themselves, to
think of their life and of their death.

A servant appears in the balcony, dressed in white and walking softly.
She brings newspapers and hands them about.

"It's decided," says the first to unfold his paper. "War is declared."

Expected as the news is, its effect is almost dazing, for this audience
feels that its portent is without measure or limit. These men of
culture and intelligence, detached from the affairs of the world and
almost from the world itself, whose faculties are deepened by suffering
and meditation, as far remote from their fellow men as if they were
already of the Future--these men look deeply into the distance, towards
the unknowable land of the living and the insane.

"Austria's act is a crime," says the Austrian.

"France must win," says the Englishman.