of importance happening. The midshipmen were glad to find that,
thanks to their sheepskin cloaks and pointed hoods, they passed
through the towns without attracting any attention whatever.
The convoy lessened in length as it proceeded. The animals broke down
in great numbers and died by the road, under the task of dragging the
heavy wagons through the deep snow.
At a town of some size, where they halted for two days, relief was
afforded by the wheels being taken off the wagons, and rough runners
affixed, the wheels being placed on the carts, as that they could be
put on again in case of a thaw.
Famine, however, did more that fatigue in destroying the animals; for
although good exertions had been made to form depots of forage along
the roads, these were exhausted faster than they could be collected by
the enormous trains, which, laden with provisions and warlike stores,
were making their way to Sebastopol from the interior of Russia. There
was no lack of food for the men, for ample stores of black bread were
carried, and a supply of meat was always obtainable at the end of the
day's journey by the carcase of some bullock which had fallen and then
been shot during the day's march.
But though the train diminished in length, its occupants diminished
even more rapidly. Every morning, before starting, a burying party
were busy interring the bodies of those who had died during the
previous day's march or in the night.
When the halt was made at a village, the papa or priest of the place
performed a funeral mass; when, as was more common, they encamped in
the open, the grave was filled in, a rough cross was erected over it,
and the convoy proceeded on its march.
The midshipmen found the journey dreary and uninteresting in the
extreme.
After leaving the Crimea the country became a dead flat; which,
though bright in summer, with a wide expanse of waving grain, was
inexpressibly mournful and monotonous as it lay under its wide
covering of snow. Here and there, far across the plain, could be seen
the low, flat-roofed huts of a Russian village, or the massively-built
abode of some rich landed proprietor.
Scarce a tree broke the monotony of the wide plain, and the creaking
of the carts and the shouts of the drivers seemed strangely loud as
they rose in the dense silence of the plain.
From the first day of starting, the midshipmen set themselves to learn
something of the language. The idea was Jack's and he pointe
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