“On June 21, we left the sector of the Thiescourt Woods for an unknown
destination, which proved to be the Somme. We took the train at Estrées
St. Denis, and on June 22 about 10 a. m. reached Boves. Under a blazing
sun, in heat that seemed to have escaped from the furnace of hell, we
started for Bayonviller. We had undergone no such march since the war
began.
“Weighed down by their sacks, prostrated by the heat, men fell by
hundreds along the road. Hardly twenty of the two hundred forming the
company arrived without having left the column. Seeger was one of
these few. He told me afterward of the terrible effort that he had to
make not to give up. At every halt he drank a drop of _tafia_ (rum and
coffee) to ‘give himself heart,’ and when he reached the end of the
march he was worn out, but proud—he had not left the ranks.
“We passed the eight days of repose at Bayonviller, almost always
together, seeking the greatest possible enjoyment in our life at
the moment and making dreams for the future after the war. Alan
confided to me that ‘after the war’ caused him fear—that he could
not tell what destiny reserved for him, but that if the fates
smiled on him it was toward the Orient that he would make. He loved
the Orient—Constantinople, Cairo, Damascus, Beirut had a powerful
fascination for him; their names would plunge him into profound reverie.
“‘It is in the mysterious frame of the Orient,’ he used to say, ‘in its
dazzling light, in its blue, blue nights, among the perfumes of incense
and hashish, that I would live, love, and die.’
“And then the talk would turn again on the war and he would say: ‘My
only wish now is to make a bayonet charge. After that I shall see.
Death may surprise me, but it shall not frighten me. It is my destiny.
“_Mektoub_”’ (it is written). He was a real fatalist and drew courage
and resignation from his fatalism.
“During the night of June 30-July 1 we left Bayonviller to move nearer
the firing-line. We went to Proyart as reserves.
“At 8 o’clock on the morning of July 1 there was roll-call for the
day’s orders and we were told that the general offensive would begin at
nine without us, as we were in reserve, and that we would be notified
of the day and hour that we were to go into action.
“When this report was finished we were ordered to shell fatigue,
unloading 8-inch shells from automobile-trucks which brought them up to
our position.
“All was hustle and bustle. The Colonial regiments had carried the
first German lines and thousands and thousands of prisoners kept
arriving and leaving. Ambulances filed along the roads continuously. As
news began to arrive we left our work to seek more details, everything
we could learn seemed to augur well.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Joseph Cummings Chase._