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We set out as soon as the king appeared, and proceeded to a place in the forest, about two leagues away, in which the beaters had found for us a marcassin, or wild pig, which would afford very good sport, and not so dangerous as a full-grown boar.
Our piqueurs were especially trained to hunt the boar, and it was inspiring to see how both men and dogs took to their work. We reached the forest before the sun was high. The woods had already been beaten by boys with kiaki a kind of wooden clapper, of which the name describes the noise. The marcassin had been found, and the dogs put in at once.
John will be leaving me to worship at your feet." Elizabeth's eyes were good enough. The French called them "marcassin," that is, wild boar's eyes. They were little and sparkling; they were not luminous and large like Dorothy's, and the girl's flattery was rank.
When some one spoke banteringly of militarism for no one, except Termite, who didn't count, took the word seriously Marcassin growled despairingly, "French militarism and Prussian militarism, they're not the same thing, for one's French and the other's Prussian!" But we felt that all these wrangles only shocked and wearied him. He was instantly and gloomily silent.
It brings something limitless into being, something which surpasses and threatens us; and it seems to me that he who is not with it will one day be trodden underfoot. My head goes down in thought. I walk close to Marcassin, who gives me the impression of an escaping animal, hopping through the darkness whether because of his name, or his stench, I do not know.
"Better not do that again," growled the soldiers who were lined up in the trench, gorgonized by the extraordinary sight of a living man standing, for no reason, on a front line parapet in broad daylight, stupefied by the rashness they admired although it outstripped them. "Why not? Look!" Marcassin sprang up once more.
I recall the silhouette of Adjutant Marcassin, and him whom I quoted a moment ago the sincere hero, barren and dogmatic, with his furious faith. I seem to be asking him, "Do you believe in beauty, in progress?" He does not know, so he replies, "No! I only believe in the glory of the French name!" "Do you believe in respect for life, in the dignity of labor, in the holiness of happiness?" "No."
This word she imagined must signify something particularly wonderful, since her eyes were compared to it; and being desirous, some time afterwards, to know all the energy of the expression, she asked the meaning of the French word marcassin. As there are no wild boars in England, those to whom she addressed herself, told her that it signified a young pig.
One day, after morning parade, when the company was breaking off, a Parisian of our section went up to Marcassin and asked him, "Adjutant, we should like to know if we are going away." The officer took it in bad part. "To know? Always wanting to know!" he cried; "it's a disease in France, this wanting to know. Get it well into your heads that you won't know! We shall do the knowing for you!
And his words enter my heart more distinctly than when they were still alive; and they wound me like blows at once of darkness and of light. "Men must not open their eyes!" "Faith comes at will, like the rest!" said Adjutant Marcassin, as he fluttered in his red trousers about the ranks, like a blood-stained priest of the God of War. He was right!
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