A Fable

Three posts are erected in the parade ground outside the prison camp. The remaining men of the mutinous regiment are led into area before the posts. Realizing that they have been brought to witness the corporal’s execution, they fling themselves at the ground beneath the post until they are dragged away by guards. The corporal, Lapin, and Horse are brought out and tied to the posts. 20 soldiers are assembled opposite them as the execution order is read aloud. The soldiers fire on command and shoot the three condemned men. The corporal’s body falls from the post into a “rubbish-filled trench” (385) where it becomes entangled in a knot of barbed wire. The body is cut free and carried away. The posts are removed.

The corporal’s body is carried to the edge of the camp where it is handed over to the corporal’s wife. She plans to bury it in St. Mihiel, in a battle zone “with Germans on one side of it and Americans on the other” (387). The corporal’s relations take his body through the streets of the town. A crowd assembles, watching silently. Once the body is gone, the streets of the town empty.