are said to subsist, when they have been unlucky in their hunting and
fishing, and have nothing better to eat."

They accordingly turned the chariot off from the road into the edge
of the thicket, unharnessed the horse, and left him free to forage for
himself; whereupon he began to nibble, with great apparent relish, at
the scattered spears of grass peeping up here and there through the
snow. A large rug was brought from the chariot and spread upon the
ground in a sheltered spot, upon which the comedians seated themselves,
in Turkish fashion, in a circle, while Blazius distributed among them
the sorry rations he had managed to scrape together; laughing and
jesting about them in such an amusing manner that all were fain to
join in his merriment, and general good humour prevailed. The Baron
de Sigognac, who had long, indeed always, been accustomed to extreme
frugality, in fact almost starvation, and found it easier to bear such
trials with equanimity than his companions, could not help admiring the
wonderful way in which the pedant made the best of a really desperate
situation, and found something to laugh at and make merry over where
most people would have grumbled and groaned, and bewailed their hard
lot, in a manner to make themselves, and all their companions in misery,
doubly unhappy. But his attention was quickly absorbed in his anxiety
about Isabelle, who was deathly pale, and shivering until her teeth
chattered, though she did her utmost to conceal her suffering condition,
and to laugh with the rest. Her wraps were sadly insufficient to protect
her properly from such extreme cold as they were exposed to then, and
de Sigognac, who was sitting beside her, insisted upon sharing his cloak
with her--though she protested against his depriving himself of so
much of it--and beneath its friendly shelter gently drew her slender,
shrinking form close to himself, so as to impart some of his own vital
warmth to her. She could feel the quickened beating of his heart as he
held her respectfully, yet firmly and tenderly, embraced, and he was
soon rewarded for his loving care by seeing the colour return to her
pale lips, the happy light to her sweet eyes, and even a faint flush
appear on her delicate cheeks.

While they were eating--or rather making believe to eat their
make-believe breakfast--a singular noise was heard near by, to which
at first they paid no particular attention, thinking it was the wind
whistling through the