For days on end he had had no rest. In the Fifth Army _debacle_ of
March his battalion had been one of the first to break, although
remnants had fought as few men had ever fought before; and when they
had been reorganised they were moved back into the line, undermanned,
ill-equipped, and branded with disgrace. It was the culmination of
three years" service at the front, and his nerves were at the
breaking-point. Mounds of earth ahead of him, and gnarled, dismembered
trees, began to take the ghostly shapes that the frightened boy had
told of.
