for two hours the twentieth regiment endured the storm of shell. to advance a37 regiment of infantry like that without artillery support was surely an incredible piece of criminal stupidity. some one had blundered. but there were many blunders in those early days of the campaign, and the truth hasn’t all come out even yet.
one interesting fact, however, did come out; although coco didn’t hear of it for several days. it was a piece of sublime sentimentality impossible in any other than a french army; quite consistent with the character of the romantic, high-spirited colonel who had orated so grandiloquently at the toulouse railway station. the night before the battle of bertrix, the colonel had done a strange thing; he had, in the presence of his staff, burned the regimental colors. the enemy was in countless force against him. his gallic sense of honor, when he was ordered to attack an impregnable position, told him that there was only one thing to do. he38 must go forward with his men, and die—but the flag must not be captured.
and so, go forward and die he did, that gallant old man. as coco lay, under that august sun, in the rain of bursting shells, he heard a bugle ring out on the left flank. four companies rose to their feet and charged that murderous wood. at their head the colonel ran, waving his sword—yes, just like the battle pictures, coco swears—ran for a few hundred yards toward his inevitable death, and dropped—with his honor unsullied. behind him his men dropped, too, in appalling numbers—dropped singly and in bunches till they faltered, stopped, then fell back.
at this, the whistles blew at last for the general retreat.
it was high time; for, at the sight of this destruction all over the field, men had already begun to jump up and run toward the39 rear. now they all ran—everybody ran—with the shells and shrapnel chasing them. they threw away their knapsacks, they threw away their guns, they ran screaming and crying like children.
coco threw away his knapsack and musette, too, but kept his rifle as he ran, making for a shelter in the woods on the other side of the road. “you’ve no idea how much worse they were, those shells; when i had turned my back i expected to be hit every moment. my spine fairly cringed.” the remnants of the colonels four companies were pulled together and attempted to cover the retreat. but the regiment had stampeded. the officers shouted and swore, they struck men with their swords, some were even shot, but nothing could stop the rout.
