She glanced once more at the Colonel .sx He showed no signs of being interested in what was going on before his eyes , and the shoe remained , untouched , at his feet .sx It occurred to her briefly ( two more prisoners were examined ) how odd it was that of all the people in the convoy who had been held up by this 'Colonel' and his assistant , she and Benvenuto were the only ones who knew that they could not be what they seemed .sx And did Benvenuto know ?sx It also seemed to her that the soldier was taking a long time reaching Benvenuto , but she did not trust her senses .sx It must be no time at all , she said .sx Then she heard the soldier shout :sx ~'Fall out !sx ~Get back in the trucks !sx ' and the Colonel add , in their language , ~'And don't waste any time about it !sx ' and though it seemed impossible to her that she should have escaped , she could not think of any other possible explanation for the command .sx As they started shuffling back towards the truck she tried to keep walking evenly , in spite of the fact that one foot was now higher than the other .sx No one moved very fast .sx She saw Benvenuto get into the truck among the first without looking either right or left ; she saw the soldier help one of the wounded up over the tail-gate ; she saw the Colonel start to hurry the line along , pushing each man along by the shoulders ; and when she was a few prisoners away from boarding the truck herself , she saw the Colonel step on her shoe .sx At first it seemed that he would not even notice his discomfort in his impatience to get on to the next truck .sx But obviously the heel of the shoe annoyed him and he got the soldier to point his flashlight down at the offending object .sx The soldier picked it up and held it in his hand , but the Colonel took it from him and methodically wiped the mud from it so that its red leather shone .sx Clara meanwhile had passed him and was in the truck , manoeuvring to be as close to Benvenuto as possible .sx When she turned round she could see the shoe in the Colonel's hand .sx It looked very small and the Colonel's hand looked very large .sx 'What a pretty shoe,' Lescaut said .sx 'What a very pretty shoe .sx ' THREE .sx Liberation .sx =1 .sx UNTIL the very moment when she was captured Clara had believed in her heart of hearts that she and Benvenuto would escape .sx She did not know how , but she was convinced that it would be so .sx In those few hours from noon to midnight of that August day that had been so filled with the Unusual , she had never ceased to believe in the Usual , in the day-to-day life she had enjoyed for many years .sx Today she was with Benvenuto ; tomorrow she would be with Benvenuto .sx Had it not always been so ?sx Would it not always be so ?sx The more you love , the more you think it likely that the world must love too .sx It takes stubborn facts to dislodge belief or habit .sx Until the moment , then , that Manon Lescaut picked up the shoe , Clara was convinced against all appearances that she and Benvenuto must be saved :sx because they loved each other , if for no other reason .sx Another thing she had taken for granted was that Benvenuto also had faith in their escape , for if he hadn't why had he undertaken to fly with her ?sx In fact , Clara had believed that it was she who tended to be more realistic in appraising their chances , and Benvenuto who had been swayed by the o'erweaning optimism of his nature .sx But when their capture was certain , she saw that Benvenuto had never believed that they would escape .sx He made this perfectly plain by his reactions .sx Far from being more frightened than before , his capture plainly relieved his mind of whatever doubts he may have had .sx He followed and obeyed Manon Lescaut as though he was absolutely certain that the Rumanian knew what he was doing , why he was doing it ; and even as though he thought that the Rumanian probably knew better than he , Benvenuto , did , what was good and suitable for him .sx Clara was used to following his lead , and within minutes she , too , began to feel a certain relief that she had been captured .sx The moment she realized that she and Benvenuto would not escape , she saw that everything that had happened in the past twelve hours had happened just as it had been ordained ; and in the same way everything that would happen to them now would happen as it was ordained .sx And if this was so , there was no need to plan anything or to feel any fear .sx Several times , during the hour that followed their capture , when they were being driven through the back roads in the mountains in a jeep the Rumanian had commandeered , she looked to Benvenuto to see if he thought the same way ; and whenever she looked , she saw her own feelings confirmed .sx Benvenuto's face was deprived of all expression .sx It had done away both with its past and with its future ; it neither regretted nor expected .sx From time to time his large and strong hand passed under her blanket to meet hers and lie there on her lap ; and even in this he showed neither pleasure nor pain .sx His hand merely indicated that he was there next to her and that they were together .sx She derived a great strength from this and she and Benvenuto were able to sustain everything the Rumanian said and did in silence .sx The Rumanian was not cruel , except with his words , and his words all seemed to deal with someone called the Capita@2n and with times that had gone by and had no particular relevance at the moment .sx Indeed , she could not imagine why he bothered to mention half the things he mentioned :sx did he think Benvenuto had forgotten them ?sx or would deny them ?sx But now that all those things were done , now that they were over with , what could recalling them serve ?sx They were taken to a cafe@2 in the mountains and told to sit down on two chairs by the wall , on either side of one of those football games which are so common , where all the players are on handles and you make goals by twisting the handles and making the players kick a ping-pong ball into the goal .sx Benvenuto sat down on the side of the red team and she sat down on the side of the white .sx The Rumanian introduced her to a man called 'Major Vincent' and then introduced Benvenuto .sx They did not get up from their chairs , nor did the Major , whom she saw as a small , fat , pink man , seek to shake their hands .sx She presumed that they were going to be handed over into his charge , and she was surprised to find that she did not care .sx Then a glance at Benvenuto told her that he too did not care .sx It was unimportant in whose hands they were ; all would happen as it had been ordained .sx 2 .sx IT WAS possible for Major Vincent to misjudge the emotions of Benvenuto and Clara as he did because from his point of view , knowing what he knew of their fates , there was very little in their present appearance to indicate anything else but the most abject fear and humiliation .sx As he studied them in the fullness of his self-satisfaction , nothing suggested that the pale , weary , shrunken , wizened old man in his tattered rags was the same proud Capita@2n who had guided the destiny of his country for twenty years .sx In Bassanio's patched and threadbare uniform Benvenuto looked like an ordinary fugitive from justice caught in an absolutely futile disguise .sx Gone was the habitual arrogance of his expression , gone the proud thrust of his jaw , the many gestures of the hands ; extinct the brilliance and fire of his eyes .sx Nor was it possible to see in her an Emperor's mistress , a pampered Pompadour , as the Major had always imagined her .sx She looked- the expression caused the Major a smile- like a wife , a sort of faithful adjunct , a mute copy of her master .sx She sat in a slouch with one fine shoe on one delicate foot , in a dress spattered and stiff with mud :sx to the Major her cropped hair and thin breasts , her pale and drawn face and her sleepless-strained eyes brought to mind nothing more than submissiveness and servility .sx When the Rumanian brought them in , Major Vincent decided that they were both in the last stages of fear and exhaustion and that he would have no trouble with them .sx Benvenuto and Clara were not the first prisoners he had taken , nor would they be the first he would execute .sx Most of his other prisoners had behaved in a certain way , and he was confident Benvenuto and Clara would behave in the same way .sx What he read as fear in their faces he ascribed to the overwhelming depression of being taken when they thought they would be free .sx He thought of Benvenuto as being in the same position as that prisoner of the Spanish Cardinal during the Inquisition .sx One night the Cardinal left the prisoner's door unlocked and through endless dangers and mounting fear the prisoner made his way to the very outer wall of the citadel- only to find the Cardinal waiting for him there when he had scaled that wall .sx To be a few steps short of achieving one's aims , Major Vincent thought , was as terrible a fate as could befall a man .sx Like that Cardinal , the Major had his methods with prisoners , and he believed them to be the most modern and most efficient methods , and relatively without cruelty .sx What he wanted from the Capita@2n before he killed him was to see him broken down into absolute zero ; he wanted him to deny ever having been a human being ; he wanted him to unthink every thought he had ever had .sx If he could succeed in this , he would have accomplished two desirable aims .sx First , his own thoughts would rule supreme and he would feel , as he had felt before , that state of semi-exaltation in which his own ideas seemed to supersede all others and have free play with the realities of the world .sx In that state there were no cars that did not function , no stomachs with special requirements and no imperfections of communication .sx Second , it would be much easier to kill his prisoner once he had been reduced to absolute zero .sx Somehow , he had found , the more afraid a man was , the easier it was to kill him .sx The Major had his methods for achieving these aims :sx they had always succeeded in the past .sx 'The mind is a simple thing,' he thought .sx 'It is made to feel and understand one thing at a time , so that you can make it swing like a pendulum .sx You can make doubt play with hope , speculation with logic .sx Ultimately the only relief is in not caring at all .sx The mind will take death with ease then , for life is a burden and a torment and death is a liberation .sx ' What the Major did not understand was that Benvenuto and Clara had reached this point without him .sx It was the Major's odd vanity to think that he could impose this on two human beings .sx In reality , they were making it necessary for him to follow that path .sx But Major Vincent also had his moments of doubt .sx It was impossible , for instance , to calculate what effect the girl would have on his plans .sx What ought he to do with her ?sx Wouldn't it be considered unnecessarily cruel to kill the girl as well ?sx And how could he reduce her to zero when obviously all her concerns were with the Capita@2n and she barely thought of herself at all ?sx For the moment he sidestepped the thought .sx I will decide what to do with her later , he imagined , not thinking that Clara would have anything to say in his decision .sx