To beat the Germans is enough." Another trumpet blew and the Strangers rose for battle again with an invisible enemy.

All the officers, like the men, were on foot, their horses having been killed in the earlier fighting, and they advanced slowly across the stubble of a wheat field.

The morning was still cool, although the sun was bright, and the air was full of vigor.

The rumbling of the artillery grew with the day, but the Strangers said little.
Battle had ceased to be a novelty.

They would fight somewhere and with somebody, but they would wait patiently and without curiosity until the time came.
"I suppose Lannes didn't come back," said Carstairs.