e to them, and I
sent four of them three hundred yards ahead, to scout, and the others
followed pell-mell, walking at random and without any order. I put the
strongest in the rear, with orders to quicken the pace of the sluggards
with the points of their bayonets... in the back.

"The snow seemed as if it were going to bury us alive; it powdered our
_kepis_[15] and cloaks without melting, and made phantoms of us, a
species of specters of dead soldiers, who were very tired, and I said to
myself: 'We shall never get out of this, except by a miracle.'

[Footnote 15: Forage Caps.]

"Sometimes we had to stop for a few minutes, on account of those who
could not follow us, and then we heard nothing except the falling snow,
that vague, almost indiscernible sound which all those flakes make, as
they come down together. Some of the men shook themselves, but others
did not move, and so I gave the order to set off again; they shouldered
their rifles, and with weary feet we set out, when suddenly the scouts
fell back. Something had alarmed them; they had heard voices in front of
them, and so I sent six men and a sergeant on ahead, and waited.

"All at once a shrill cry, a woman's cry, pierced through the heavy
silence of the snow, and in a few minutes they brought back two
prisoners, an old man and a girl, and I questioned them in a low voice.
They were escaping from the Prussians, who had occupied their house
during the evening, and who had got drunk, The father had become alarmed
on his daughter's account, and, without even telling their servants,
they had made their escape into the darkness. I saw immediately that
they belonged to the upper classes, and, as I should have done in any
case, I invited them to come with us, and we started off together, and
as the old man knew the road, he acted as our guide.

"It had ceased snowing; the stars appeared, and the cold became intense.
The girl, who was leaning on her father's arm, walked wrearily, and with
jerks, and several times she murmured:

"'I have no feeling at all in my feet;' and I suffered more than she
did, I believe, to see that poor little woman dragging herself like that
through the snow. But suddenly she stopped, and said:

"'Father, I am so tired that I cannot go any further ther,'

"The old man wanted to carry her, but he could not even lift her up, and
she fell on the ground, with a deep sigh. We all came round her, and as
for me, I stamped on the ground, not kn