THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
last we had reached its summit... we looked
around us and saw the arms of our soldiers, line
upon line of them, shining in the sun. It was the tide
of victory coming in. It was wonderful. . . /
1 was in Italy at the time/ the Major said. 'My
division had instructions to cross the Piave under
enemy fire. The first day we took an island in the
middle of the river. The sappers, under the
protection of the gunners, had gone on in front and
built pontoons. But to get from the island to the
other bank meant taking to the water. It was quite
amusing/
"Was it?' I said. 'You must have got pretty
damp/
'Oh, I don't know/ he said, 'the sun made short
work of drying a tunic!5
'And what about the non-swimmers?'
'The Piave isn't so very deep,' the Major said.
'The water was never more than chest-high. There
was no real danger. Only the short ones were
drowned/
'Man's a strange and crazy creature,' I said, *as
soon as the present begins to seem monotonous, the
anguish of the past becomes by contrast infinitely
attractive. "When danger threatens us, we hate it:
yet when it has passed, we are full of regrets/
'Yes/ said the Colonel, 'one hears some queer
things said sometimes. Last Sunday, General
Bramble came to see me—You'll probably know
35