ty of abridging the task assigned them by the
marshal. The corps was halted and proceeded to encamp; the train below
in the meadows, guarded by a division, while the artillery took position
on the hills to the rear, and the brigade detailed to act as rear-guard
on the morrow rested on a height facing Saint-Pierremont. The other
division, which included Bourgain-Desfeuilles' brigade, bivouacked on a
wide plateau, bordered by an oak wood, behind the church. There was such
confusion in locating the bodies of troops that it was dark before the
106th could move into its position at the edge of the wood.

"_Zut_!" said Chouteau in a furious rage, "no eating for me; I want to
sleep!"

And that was the cry of all; they were overcome with fatigue. Many of
them lacked strength and courage to erect their tents, but dropping
where they stood, at once fell fast asleep on the bare ground. In order
to eat, moreover, rations would have been necessary, and the commissary
wagons, which were waiting for the 7th corps to come to them at la
Besace, could not well be at Osches at the same time. In the universal
relaxation of order and system even the customary corporal's call was
omitted: it was everyone for himself. There were to be no more issues
of rations from that time forth; the soldiers were to subsist on the
provisions they were supposed to carry in their knapsacks, and that
evening the sacks were empty; few indeed were those who could muster a
crust of bread or some crumbs of the abundance in which they had been
living at Vouziers of late. There was coffee, and those who were not too
tired made and drank it without sugar.

When Jean thought to make a division of his wealth by eating one of his
biscuits himself and giving the other to Maurice, he discovered that
the latter was sound asleep. He thought at first he would awake him,
but changed his mind and stoically replaced the biscuits in his sack,
concealing them with as much caution as if they had been bags of gold;
he could get along with coffee, like the rest of the boys. He had
insisted on having the tent put up, and they were all stretched on
the ground beneath its shelter when Loubet returned from a foraging
expedition, bringing in some carrots that he had found in a neighboring
field. As there was no fire to cook them by they munched them raw, but
the vegetables only served to aggravate their hunger, and they made
Pache ill.

"No, no; let him sleep," said Jean to Chouteau