midday
They were grave , bland , austere and implacable in appearance . Several times they pushed Desnoyers out of their way as if they did not see him . They looked like nuns , but with revolvers under their habits . At midday other automobiles began to arrive , attracted by the enormous white flag with the red cross , which was now waving from the castle tower . They came from the division battling beyond the Marne . Their metal fittings were dented by projectiles , their wind-shields broken by star-shaped holes . From their interiors appeared men and more men ; some on foot , others on canvas stretchers -- faces pale and rubicund , profiles aquiline and snubby , red heads and skulls wrapped in white turbans stiff with blood ; mouths that laughed with bravado and mouths that groaned with bluish lips ; jaws supported with mummy-like bandages ; giants in agony whose wounds were not apparent ; shapeless forms ending in a head that talked and smoked ; legs with hanging flesh that was dyeing the First Aid wrappings with their red moisture ; arms that hung as inert as dead boughs ; torn uniforms in which were conspicuous the tragic vacancies of absent members .