his hostile soil were leagued against them; that it
treacherously escaped from under their efforts; that it was constantly
leading them into snares, as if to embarrass and retard their march, and
to deliver them up to the Russians in pursuit of them, or to their
terrible climate.

And, in truth, whenever, for a moment, they halted from exhaustion, the
winter, laying his icy hand upon them, was ready to seize his victims.
In vain did these unhappy creatures, feeling themselves benumbed, raise
themselves up, and, already deprived of the power of speech, and plunged
into a stupor, proceed a few steps like automatons: their blood froze
in their veins, like water in the current of rivulets, congealing the
heart, and then flying back to the head; and these dying men staggered
as if they had been intoxicated. From their eyes, reddened and inflamed
by the constant glare of the snow, by the want of sleep, and the smoke
of the bivouacs, there flowed real tears of blood; their bosoms heaved
with deep and heavy sighs; they looked towards heaven, at us, and on the
earth, with an eye dismayed, fixed, and wild, as expressive of their
farewell, and, it might be, of their reproaches against the barbarous
nature which was tormenting them. It was not long before they fell upon
their knees, and then upon their hands; their heads still slowly moved
for a few minutes alternately to the right and left, and from their open
mouths some sounds of agony escaped; at last, they fell flat upon the
snow, burying their faces in it, and their sufferings were at an end.

Their comrades passed by them without moving a step out of their way,
that they might not, by the slightest curve, prolong their journey, and
without even turning their heads; for their beards and hair were so
stiffened with ice that every movement was painful. Nor did they even
pity them; for, in fact, what had they lost by dying? what had they left
behind them? They suffered so much, they were still so far from France,
so much divested of all feelings of country by the surrounding prospect
and by misery, that every dear illusion was broken, and hope almost
destroyed. The greater number, therefore, had from necessity, from the
habit of seeing death constantly around them, and from the prevailing
feeling, become careless of dying, sometimes treating it with contempt;
but generally, on seeing these unfortunates stretched on the snow, and
instantly stiffened, contenting themselves with th