e unfortunate Frenchmen.

"The Russians! the Russians are coming!" cried the defenders to the
workers; and the work went on, the raft increased in length and breadth
and depth. Generals, soldiers, colonel, all put their shoulders to the
wheel; it was a true image of the building of Noah's ark. The young
countess, seated beside her husband, watched the progress of the work
with regret that she could not help it; and yet she did assist in making
knots to secure the cordage.

At last the raft was finished. Forty men launched it on the river, a
dozen others holding the cords which moored it to the shore. But no
sooner had the builders seen their handiwork afloat, than they sprang
from the bank with odious selfishness. The major, fearing the fury of
this first rush, held back the countess and the general, but too late
he saw the whole raft covered, men pressing together like crowds at a
theatre.

"Savages!" he cried, "it was I who gave you the idea of that raft. I
have saved you, and you deny me a place."

A confused murmur answered him. The men at the edge of the raft, armed
with long sticks, pressed with violence against the shore to send off
the frail construction with sufficient impetus to force its way through
corpses and ice-floes to the other shore.

"Thunder of heaven! I'll sweep you into the water if you don't take the
major and his two companions," cried the stalwart grenadier, who swung
his sabre, stopped the departure, and forced the men to stand closer in
spite of furious outcries.

"I shall fall,"--"I am falling,"--"Push off! push off!--Forward!"
resounded on all sides.

The major looked with haggard eyes at Stephanie, who lifted hers to
heaven with a feeling of sublime resignation.

"To die with thee!" she said.

There was something even comical in the position of the men in
possession of the raft. Though they were uttering awful groans and
imprecations, they dared not resist the grenadier, for in truth they
were so closely packed together, that a push to one man might send half
of them overboard. This danger was so pressing that a cavalry captain
endeavored to get rid of the grenadier; but the latter, seeing the
hostile movement of the officer, seized him round the waist and flung
him into the water, crying out,--

"Ha! ha! my duck, do you want to drink? Well, then, drink!--Here are
two places," he cried. "Come, major, toss me the little woman and follow
yourself. Leave that old fossil, who'll be