few
dozen leagues are nothing."

My heart beat more bravely, but my strength was gone. I could no
longer carry my musket; it was heavy as lead. I could not eat; my
knees trembled beneath me; still I did not despair, but kept murmuring
to myself: "This is nothing. When you see the clock-tower of
Phalsbourg your fever will leave you. You will have good air, and
Catharine will nurse you. All will yet be well!"

Others, no worse than I, fell by the roadside, but still I toiled on;
when near Folde, we learned that fifty thousand Bavarians were posted
in the forests through which we were to pass, for the purpose of
cutting off our retreat. This was my finishing stroke, for I knew I
could no longer load, fire, or defend myself with the bayonet. I felt
that all my sufferings to get so far toward home were useless.
Nevertheless, I made an effort, when we were ordered to march, and
tried to rise.

"Come, come, Joseph!" said Zebede; "courage!"

But I could not move, and lay sobbing like a child.

"Come, stand up!" he said.

"I cannot. O God! I cannot!"

I clutched his arm. Tears streamed down his face. He tried to lift
me, but he was too weak; I held fast to him, crying:

"Zebede, do not abandon me!"

Captain Tidal approached, and gazed sadly on me.

"Cheer up, my lad," said he; "the ambulances will be along in half an
hour."

But I knew what that meant, and I drew Zebede closer to me. He
embraced me, and I whispered in his ear:

"Kiss Catharine for me--promise! Tell her that I died thinking of her,
and bear her my last farewell!"

"Yes, yes!" he sobbed. "My poor Joseph!"

I could cling to him no longer. He placed me on the ground, and ran
away without turning his head. The column departed, and I gazed at it
as one who sees his last hope fading from his eyes. The last of the
battalion disappeared over the ridge of a hill. I closed my eyes. An
hour passed, or perhaps a longer time, when the boom of cannon startled
me, and I saw a division of the guard pass at a quick step with
artillery and wagons. Seeing some sick in the wagons, I cried,
wistfully:

"Take me! Take me!"

But no one listened; still they kept on, while the thunder of artillery
grew louder and louder. More than ten thousand men, cavalry and
infantry, passed me, but I had no longer strength to call out to them.

At last the long line ended; I saw knapsacks and shakos disappear
behind the hill, and I lay down to sleep forev