Nobody was shouting; they all appeared to have forgotten
their "Nach Paris!" The greenish gray monster still had its armed head
stretched across the other side of the Marne, but its tail was beginning
to uncoil with uneasy wrigglings.
After night had settled down the troops were still continuing to
fall back. The cannonading was certainly coming nearer. Some of the
thunderous claps sounded so close that they made the glass tremble in
the windows. A fugitive farmer, trying to find refuge in the park,
gave Don Marcelo some news. The Germans were in full retreat. They had
installed some of their batteries on the banks of the Marne in order
to attempt a new resistance. . . . And the new arrival remained without
attracting the attention of the invaders who, a few days before, would
have shot him on the slightest suspicion.
The mechanical workings of discipline were evidently out of gear.
Doctors and nurses were running from place to place, shouting orders and
breaking out into a volley of curses every time a fresh ambulance load
arrived. The drivers were commanded to take their patients on ahead
to another hospital near the rear-guard. Orders had been received to
evacuate the castle that very night.
In spite of this prohibition, one of the ambulances unloaded its relay
of wounded men. So deplorable was their state that the doctors accepted
them, judging it useless for them to continue their journey.
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