Chapter Eighteen
At 5 p.m., Denis left the Grand Monarque hotel of Varennes-en-Argonne. He glanced at the bridge over the River Aire and studied, with the drooping shoulders of a man who is sad or drunk or both, the eighteenth-century clock tower. The dining room of the Grand Monarque, a rendez-vous for the officers, was a place of conundrums, party clamour, oak woodwork, and the vague smell of human sweat and wine. Early in the day, nearly all the conversation had focused on the expected German attack. The German general, von Mudra, was intent on occupying the strategically important town of Varennes. The general understood that he was on verge of being replaced by – no less – the crown prince Wilhelm von Hohenzollern. Before that happened, he wanted to achieve at least one victory in th
