was still moveable.

This observation was sufficient to make their first sensation of joy
give way to uneasiness. This hostile river might only offer them a
treacherous appearance. One officer devoted himself for the rest; he
crossed to the other side with great difficulty. He returned and
reported, that the men, and perhaps some of the horses might pass over,
but that the rest must be abandoned, and there was no time to lose, as
the ice was beginning to give way in consequence of the thaw.

But in this nocturnal and silent march across fields, of a column
composed of weakened and wounded men, and women with their children,
they had been unable to keep close enough, to prevent their extending,
separating, and losing the traces of each other in the darkness. Ney
perceived that only a part of his people had come up; nevertheless, he
might have always surmounted the obstacle, thereby secured his own
safety, and waited on the other side. The idea never once entered his
mind; some one proposed it to him, but he rejected it instantly. He
allowed three hours for the rallying; and without suffering himself to
be agitated by impatience, or the danger of waiting so long, he wrapped
himself up in his cloak, and passed these three dangerous hours in a
profound sleep on the bank of the river. So much did he possess of the
temperament of great men, a strong mind in a robust body, and that
vigorous health, without which no man can ever expect to be a hero.

CHAP. IX.

At last, about midnight, the passage began; but the first persons who
ventured on the ice, called out that the ice was bending under them,
that it was sinking, that they were up to their knees in water;
immediately after which that frail support was heard splitting with
frightful cracks, which were prolonged in the distance, as in the
breaking up of a frost. All halted in consternation.

Ney ordered them to pass only one at a time; they proceeded with
caution, not knowing sometimes in the darkness if they were putting
their feet on the flakes or into a chasm; for there were places where
they were obliged to clear large crevices, and jump from one piece of
ice to another, at the risk of falling between them and disappearing for
ever. The first hesitated, but those who were behind kept calling to
them to make haste.

When at last, after several of these dreadful panics, they reached the
opposite bank and fancied themselves saved, a perpendicular steep,
enti