tice to say that he never spared his breath in
shouting in stentorian tones,--

"Look out there, carrion!"

"Poor wretches!" cried the major.

"Pooh! that or the cold, that or the cannon," said the grenadier,
prodding the horses, and urging them on.

A catastrophe, which might well have happened to them much sooner, put a
stop to their advance. The carriage was overturned.

"I expected it," cried the imperturbable grenadier. "Ho! ho! your man is
dead."

"Poor Laurent!" said the major.

"Laurent? Was he in the 5th chasseurs?"

"Yes."

"Then he was my cousin. Oh, well, this dog's life isn't happy enough to
waste any joy in grieving for him."

The carriage could not be raised; the horses were taken out with serious
and, as it proved, irreparable loss of time. The shock of the overturn
was so violent that the young countess, roused from her lethargy, threw
off her coverings and rose.

"Philippe, where are we?" she cried in a gentle voice, looking about
her.

"Only five hundred feet from the bridge. We are now going to cross the
Beresina, Stephanie, and once across I will not torment you any more;
you shall sleep; we shall be in safety, and can reach Wilna easily.--God
grant that she may never know what her life has cost!" he thought.

"Philippe! you are wounded!"

"That is nothing."

Too late! the fatal hour had come. The Russian cannon sounded the
reveille. Masters of Studzianka, they could sweep the plain, and by
daylight the major could see two of their columns moving and forming
on the heights. A cry of alarm arose from the multitude, who started
to their feet in an instant. Every man now understood his danger
instinctively, and the whole mass rushed to gain the bridge with the
motion of a wave.

The Russians came down with the rapidity of a conflagration. Men, women,
children, horses,--all rushed tumultuously to the bridge. Fortunately
the major, who was carrying the countess, was still some distance from
it. General Eble had just set fire to the supports on the other bank. In
spite of the warnings shouted to those who were rushing upon the bridge,
not a soul went back. Not only did the bridge go down crowded with human
beings, but the impetuosity of that flood of men toward the fatal bank
was so furious that a mass of humanity poured itself violently into the
river like an avalanche. Not a cry was heard; the only sound was like
the dropping of monstrous stones into the water. Then the Beresina wa