9.
Jean-de-la-Montagne.On the evening of the 22nd, (another date I shall never forget) I was installed in my bothy with food a-plenty -enough to feed a regiment in the company of Jean, a young shepherd of twenty whom Raboullet had lent me as porter for the long march to the bothy.
“Do what you will with him…I shan’t need him right now. Not ‘till we bring the sheep up for summer.”
Was this true? Not quite, surely, but he wanted Jean to assist me during our frequent journeys between the farm and the bothy, especially when the load exceeded 30 kilos (which it did more often than not). It still remained for me to march across from the bothy to Savignole, but with half the load, making another journey there, at night, when there was less risk of meeting the Vichy militia.
But first let me t
