nd compelled
to cross whether they would or no, while others, crowded off to the side
of the road, had to stand there and mark time; and by way of putting
the finishing touch to the muddle; a squadron of cavalry insisted on
passing, pressing back into the adjoining fields the stragglers that the
infantry had scattered along the roadside. At the end of an hour's march
the column had entirely lost its formation and was dragging its slow
length along, a mere disorderly rabble.

Thus it happened that Jean found himself away at the rear, lost in a
sunken road, together with his squad, whom he had been unwilling to
abandon. The 106th had disappeared, nor was there a man or an officer
of their company in sight. About them were soldiers, singly or in little
groups, from all the regiments, a weary, foot-sore crew, knocked up at
the beginning of the retreat, each man straggling on at his own sweet
will whithersoever the path that he was on might chance to lead him. The
sun beat down fiercely, the heat was stifling, and the knapsack, loaded
as it was with the tent and implements of every description, made a
terrible burden on the shoulders of the exhausted men. To many of them
the experience was an entirely new one, and the heavy great-coats they
wore seemed to them like vestments of lead. The first to set an example
for the others was a little pale faced soldier with watery eyes; he drew
beside the road and let his knapsack slide off into the ditch, heaving
a deep sigh as he did so, the long drawn breath of a dying man who feels
himself coming back to life.

"There's a man who knows what he is about," muttered Chouteau.

He still continued to plod along, however, his back bending beneath its
weary burden, but when he saw two others relieve themselves as the first
had done he could stand it no longer. "Ah! _zut_!" he exclaimed, and
with a quick upward jerk of the shoulder sent his kit rolling down an
embankment. Fifty pounds at the end of his backbone, he had had enough
of it, thank you! He was no beast of burden to lug that load about.

Almost at the same moment Loubet followed his lead and incited Lapoulle
to do the same. Pache, who had made the sign of the cross at every stone
crucifix they came to, unbuckled the straps and carefully deposited his
load at the foot of a low wall, as if fully intending to come back for
it at some future time. And when Jean turned his head for a look at his
men he saw that every one of them had