d the poor animal collapsed suddenly
and fell on one side, rolling me over on the other.

'Stretched on the snow among the piles of dead and dying, unable to move
in any way, I gradually and without pain lost consciousness. I felt as
if I was being gently rocked to sleep. At last I fainted quite away
without being revived by the mighty clatter which Murat's ninety
squadrons advancing to the charge must have made in passing close to me
and perhaps over me. I judge that my swoon lasted four hours, and when I
came to my senses I found myself in this horrible position. I was
completely naked, having nothing on but my hat and my right boot. A man
of the transport corps, thinking me dead, had stripped me in the usual
fashion, and wishing to pull off the only boot that remained, was
dragging me by one leg with his foot against my body. The jerks which
the man gave me no doubt had restored me to my senses. I succeeded in
sitting up and spitting out the clots of blood from my throat. The shock
caused by the wind of the ball had produced such an extravasation of
blood, that my face, shoulders, and chest were black, while the rest of
my body was stained red by the blood from my wound. My hat and my hair
were full of bloodstained snow, and as I rolled my haggard eyes I must
have been horrible to see. Anyhow, the transport man looked the other
way, and went off with my property without my being able to say a single
word to him, so utterly prostrate was I. But I had recovered my mental
faculties, and my thoughts turned towards God and my mother.

'The setting sun cast some feeble rays through the clouds. I took what I
believed to be a last farewell of it. "If," thought I, "I had only not
been stripped, some one of the numerous people who pass near me would
notice the gold lace on my pelisse, and, recognising that I am a
marshal's aide-de-camp, would perhaps have carried me to the ambulance.
But seeing me naked, they do not distinguish me from the corpses with
which I am surrounded, and, indeed, there soon will be no difference
between them and me. I cannot call help, and the approaching night will
take away all hope of succour. The cold is increasing: shall I be able
to bear it till to-morrow, seeing that I feel my naked limbs stiffening
already?" So I made up my mind to die, for if I had been saved by a
miracle in the midst of the terrible _melee_ between the Russians and
the 14th, could I expect that there would be a second miracle