found this fog! I can't see a rod ahead."

Lorraine, also now wide awake, leaned from the window. The blank
vapour choked everything. Jack rubbed his eyes; his limbs ached;
he could scarcely move. Somebody was running on the road in
front--the sound of heavy boots in the dust came nearer and
nearer.

"Look out!" shouted Grahame, in French; "there's a team here in
the road! Passez au large!"

At the sound of his voice phantoms surged up in the mist around
them; from every side faces looked into the carriage windows,
passing, repassing, disappearing, only to appear again--ghostly,
shadowy, spectral.

"Soldiers!" muttered Jack.

At the same instant Grahame seized the lines and wheeled his
horses just in time to avoid collision with a big wagon in front.
As the post-chaise passed, more wagons loomed up in the fog, one
behind another; soldiers took form around them, voices came to
their ears, dulled by the mist.

Suddenly a pale shaft of light streamed through the fog above;
the restless, shifting vapours glimmered; a dazzling blot grew
from the mist. It was the sun. Little by little the landscape
became more distinct; the pallid, watery sky lightened; a streak
of blue cut the zenith. Everywhere in the road great, lumbering
wagons stood, loaded with straw; the sickly morning light fell on
silent files of infantry, lining the road on either hand.

"It's a convoy of wounded," said Grahame. "We're in the middle of
it. Shall we go back?"

A wagon in front of them started on; at the first jolt a cry sounded
from the straw, another, another--the deep sighs of the dying, the
groans of the stricken, the muttered curses of teamsters--rose in
one terrible plaint. Another wagon started--the wounded wailed;
another started--another--another--and the long train creaked on, the
air vibrating with the weak protestations of miserable, mangled
creatures tossing their thin arms towards the sky. And now, too, the
soldiers were moving out into the road-side bushes, unslinging rifles
and fixing bayonets; a mounted officer galloped past, shouting
something; other mounted officers followed; a bugle sounded
persistently from the distant head of the column.

Everywhere soldiers were running along the road now, grouping
together under the poplar-trees, heads turned to the plain. Some
teamsters pushed an empty wagon out beyond the line of trees and
overturned it; others stood up in their wagons, reins gathered,
long whips swinging. The w