relieve them from their sufferings. Thousands had died. One hundred died
on the day Paul entered, and another hundred during the night. All day
long the bodies lay among the living in the sun. When the dead-cart came
in, they were thrown into it like logs of wood. It was a horrible
sight,--the stony eyes, the sunken cheeks, the matted hair, the ghastly
countenances, the swaying limbs, as the cart jolted along the uneven
ground! More than thirteen thousand soldiers starved and murdered by the
Rebels were thus carried out in the dead-carts.

The keepers of the prison were cruel. Paul saw a poor cripple crawl
towards the fence and reach his hand over the dead line to get a bone.
Crack went the rifle of the sentinel, which sent a bullet through the
prisoner's brain, who tossed up his hands, gave one heart-rending
outcry, and rolled over--dead. On a dark and stormy night some of the
prisoners escaped, but ferocious dogs were put upon their track, and
they were recaptured. The hounds mangled them, and the Rebel officers
had them tied up and whipped, till death put an end to their sufferings.

It was terrible to hear the coughing of those who were dying of
consumption,--to see them crawling from place to place, searching in
vain to find a shelter from the driving storms,--to hear the piteous
cries of those who were racked with pains, or the moans of those who
gave themselves up to despair. For want of proper food the prisoners
suffered from scurvy;--their gums rotted, their teeth fell out, and
their flesh turned to corruption; they wasted away, and died in horrible
agony. It was so terrible to hear their dying cries, that Paul put his
fingers in his ears; but soon he became accustomed to the sights and
sounds, and looked upon the scenes with indifference. He pitied the
sufferers, but was powerless to aid them. Soon he found that his own
spirits began to droop. He roused himself, determined to brave out all
the horrors of the place. He sang songs and told stories, and got up
games to keep his fellow-prisoners in good heart. But notwithstanding
all his efforts to maintain his cheerfulness and composure, he felt that
he was growing weaker. Instead of being robust, he became thin and
spare. His cheeks were hollow and his eyes sunken. There was a fever in
his bones. Day by day he found himself taking shorter walks. At night,
when he curled down in his burrow, he felt tired, although he had done
no work through the day. In the morn