ar.
However, we had ten leagues to go during the night, ten leagues through
the snow, and upon empty stomachs. I thought to myself:

"'It is all over; my poor fellows will never be able to do it.'

"We had eaten nothing since the day before, and the whole day long we
remained hidden in a barn, huddled close together, so as not to feel
the cold so much; we did not venture to speak or even move, and we
slept by fits and starts, like you sleep when you are worn out with
fatigue.

"It was dark by five o'clock, that wan darkness caused by the snow, and
I shook up my men. Some of them would not get up; they were almost
incapable of moving or of standing upright, and their joints were stiff
from the cold and want of motion.

"In front of us there was a large expanse of flat, bare country; the
snow was still falling like a curtain, in large, white flakes, which
concealed everything under a heavy, thick, frozen mantle, a mattress of
ice. You would have thought that it was the end of things.

"'Come, my lads, let us start.'

"They looked at the thick, white dust which was coming down, and seemed
to think: 'We have had enough of this; we may just as well die here!'
Then I took out my revolver, and said:

"'I will shoot the first man who flinches.' And so they set off, but
very slowly, like men whose legs were of very little use to them. I
sent four of them three hundred yards ahead, to scout, and the others
followed pellmell, walking at random and without any order. I put the
strongest in the rear, with orders to quicken the pace of the sluggards
with the points of their bayonets in the back.

"The snow seemed as if it were going to bury us alive; it powdered our
kepis[1] and cloaks without melting, and made phantoms of us, ghosts of
worn-out soldiers who were very tired, and I said to myself: 'We shall
never get out of this, except by a miracle.'

"Sometimes we had to stop for a few minutes, on account of those who
could not follow us, hearing nothing but the falling snow, that vague,
almost indiscernible sound which the flakes make, as they come down
together. Some of the men shook themselves, but others did not move,
and so I gave the order to set off again; they shouldered their rifles,
and with weary feet we set out again, when suddenly the scouts fell
back. Something had alarmed them; they had heard voices in front of
them, and so I sent six men and a sergeant on ahead, and waited.

"All at once a shrill cry, a