ughts I had in my heart, that he was a good horse, that
I loved him dearly, that I should never forget him. He listened to me,
he seemed to be so pleased! Then he had another long convulsion, and so
he died, with his big vacant eyes fixed on me till the last. It is very
strange, though, and I don't suppose anyone will believe me; still, it
is the simple truth that great, big tears were standing in his eyes.
Poor old Zephyr, he cried just like a man--"

At this point Prosper's emotion got the better of him; tears choked his
utterance and he was obliged to break off. He gulped down another
glass of wine and went on with his narrative in disjointed, incomplete
sentences. It kept growing darker and darker, until there was only
a narrow streak of red light on the horizon at the verge of the
battlefield; the shadows of the dead horses seemed to be projected
across the plain to an infinite distance. The pain and stiffness in his
leg kept him from moving; he must have remained for a long time beside
Zephyr. Then, with his fears as an incentive, he had managed to get on
his feet and hobble away; it was an imperative necessity to him not to
be alone, to find comrades who would share his fears with him and make
them less. Thus from every nook and corner of the battlefield, from
hedges and ditches and clumps of bushes, the wounded who had been left
behind dragged themselves painfully in search of companionship, forming
when possible little bands of four or five, finding it less hard to
agonize and die in the company of their fellow-beings. In the wood of la
Garenne Prosper fell in with two men of the 43d regiment; they were not
wounded, but had burrowed in the underbrush like rabbits, waiting for
the coming of the night. When they learned that he was familiar with
the roads they communicated to him their plan, which was to traverse the
woods under cover of the darkness and make their escape into Belgium.
At first he declined to share their undertaking, for he would have
preferred to proceed direct to Remilly, where he was certain to find
a refuge, but where was he to obtain the blouse and trousers that
he required as a disguise? to say nothing of the impracticability of
getting past the numerous Prussian pickets and outposts that filled the
valley all the way from la Garenne to Remilly. He therefore ended by
consenting to act as guide to the two comrades. His leg was less stiff
than it had been, and they were so fortunate as to secu