han the
wake of a ship in the sea. The horses could only move at a foot-pace,
and were stopped most frequently by soldiers, who threatened to kill
them.

"Do you mean to get there?" asked the grenadier.

"Yes, if it costs every drop of blood in my body! if it costs the whole
world!" the major answered.

"Forward, then!... You can't have the omelette without breaking eggs."
And the grenadier of the Garde urged on the horses over the prostrate
bodies, and upset the bivouacs; the blood-stained wheels ploughing that
field of faces left a double furrow of dead. But in justice it should be
said that he never ceased to thunder out his warning cry, "Carrion! look
out!"

"Poor wretches!" exclaimed the major.

"Bah! That way, or the cold, or the cannon!" said the grenadier, goading
on the horses with the point of his sword.

Then came the catastrophe, which must have happened sooner but for
miraculous good fortune; the carriage was overturned, and all further
progress was stopped at once.

"I expected as much!" exclaimed the imperturbable grenadier. "Oho! he is
dead!" he added, looking at his comrade.

"Poor Laurent!" said the major.

"Laurent! Wasn't he in the Fifth Chasseurs?"

"Yes."

"My own cousin.--Pshaw! this beastly life is not so pleasant that one
need be sorry for him as things go."

But all this time the carriage lay overturned, and the horses were only
released after great and irreparable loss of time. The shock had been
so violent that the Countess had been awakened by it, and the subsequent
commotion aroused her from her stupor. She shook off the rugs and rose.

"Where are we, Philip?" she asked in musical tones, as she looked about
her.

"About five hundred paces from the bridge. We are just about to cross
the Beresina. When we are on the other side, Stephanie, I will not tease
you any more; I will let you go to sleep; we shall be in safety, we can
go on to Wilna in peace. God grant that you may never know what your
life has cost!"

"You are wounded!"

"A mere trifle."

The hour of doom had come. The Russian cannon announced the day. The
Russians were in possession of Studzianka, and thence were raking the
plain with grapeshot; and by the first dim light of the dawn the major
saw two columns moving and forming above the heights. Then a cry of
horror went up from the crowd, and in a moment every one sprang to his
feet. Each instinctively felt his danger, and all made a rush for the
bridge, s