It spread out much further to both right and left than his eyes could reach.
The members of the staff tethered their horses in the grove, and after supper stood together and talked, while the fat general paced back and forth, his brow wrinkled in deep thought.
"Good old Papa Vaugirard is studying how to make the best of us," said de Rougemont.

"We're all his children.

They say that he knows nearly ten thousand men under his command by face if not by name, and we trust him as no other brigade commander in the army is trusted by his troops.

He's thinking hard now, and General Vaugirard does not think for nothing.

As soon as he arrives at what seems to him a solution of his problem he will begin to whistle.