ish of the
soldiers was to get the matter over, and to be off home again. The
obstinacy with which the Russians fought, the rapidity with which they
marched, the intense animosity that had been excited among the peasants
by the cruel treatment to which they had been exposed, the recklessness
with which they threw away their lives so that they could but take
vengeance for their sufferings, the ferocity with which every straggler
or small detachment that fell into their hands was massacred--all these
things combined to excite a feeling of gloom and anxiety among the
soldiers.

There were no merry songs round the bivouac fires now; even the thought
of the plunder of Moscow failed to raise their spirits. The loss of so
many tried comrades was greatly felt in Ney's division. It had at first
numbered over 40,000, and the losses in battle and from sickness had
already reduced it by more than a fourth. Even the veterans lost their
usual impassive attitude of contentment with the existing state of
things.

"What I don't like," growled one of the old sergeants, "is that there is
not a soul in the villages, not a solitary man in the fields. It is not
natural. One gets the same sort of feeling one has when a thunderstorm
is just going to burst overhead. When it has begun you don't mind it,
but while you are waiting for the first flash, the first clap of
thunder, you get a sort of creepy feeling. That is just what the sight
of all this deserted country makes me feel. I have campaigned all over
Europe, but I never saw anything like this."

A growl of assent passed round the circle, and there was a general
repetition of the words, "It is not natural, comrade. Even in Spain,"
one said, "where they hate us like poison, the people don't leave their
villages like this. The young men may go, but the old men and the women
and children remain, and the priest is sure to stop. Here there is not
so much as a fowl to be seen in the streets. The whole population is
gone--man, woman, and child."

"It makes one feel," another said gloomily, "as if we were accursed,
infected with the plague, or something of that sort."

"Well, don't let us talk about it," another said with an effort at
cheerfulness. "There is Jules, he is the merriest fellow in our company.
Come here, Jules. We are all grumbling. What do you think of things?"

"I don't think much about them one way or the other," Julian said as he
came up. "We have not a great deal further to