Short Stories, vol 2 | Page 5

if it were going to bury us alive; it powdered our
kepis and cloaks without melting, and made phantoms of us, a kind of
spectres of dead, weary soldiers. I said to myself: 'We shall never get
out of this except by a, miracle.'
"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 undiscernible sound made by the falling flakes.
Some of the men shook themselves, others did not move, and so I gave
the order to set off again. They shouldered their rifles, and with weary
feet we resumed our march, when suddenly the scouts fell back.
Something had alarmed them; they had heard voices in front of them. I

sent forward six men and a sergeant 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, whom I questioned in a low voice.
They were escaping from the Prussians, who had occupied their house
during the evening and had got drunk. The father was alarmed on his
daughter's account, and, without even telling their servants, they had
made their escape in the darkness. I saw immediately that they
belonged to the better class. I invited them to accompany us, and we
started off again, the old man who knew the road acting 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 unsteadily as
though in pain, and several times she murmured:
"'I have no feeling at all in my feet'; and I suffered more than she did 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.'
"The old man wanted to carry her, but he could not even lift her up, and
she sank to the ground with a deep sigh. We all gathered round her, and,
as for me, I stamped my foot in perplexity, not knowing what to do,
and being unwilling to abandon that man and girl like that, when
suddenly one of the soldiers, a Parisian whom they had nicknamed
Pratique, said:
"'Come, comrades, we must carry the young lady, otherwise we shall
not show ourselves Frenchmen, confound it!'
"I really believe that I swore with pleasure. 'That is very good of you,
my children,' I said; 'and I will take my share of the burden.'
"We could indistinctly see, through the darkness, the trees of a little
wood on the left. Several of the men went into it, and soon came back
with a bundle of branches made into a litter.
"'Who will lend his cape? It is for a pretty girl, comrades,' Pratique said,
and ten cloaks were thrown to him. In a moment the girl was lying,
warm and comfortable, among them, and was raised upon six shoulders.
I placed myself at their head, on the right, well pleased with my
position.
"We started off much more briskly, as if we had had a drink of wine,
and I even heard some jokes. A woman is quite enough to electrify

Frenchmen, you see. The soldiers, who had become cheerful and warm,
had almost reformed their ranks, and an old 'franc-tireur' who was
following the litter, waiting for his turn to replace the first of his
comrades who might give out, said to one of his neighbors, loud
enough for me to hear: "'I am not a young man now, but by ---, there is
nothing like the women to put courage into you!'
"We went on, almost without stopping, until three o'clock in the
morning, when suddenly our scouts fell back once more, and soon the
whole detachment showed nothing but a vague shadow on the ground,
as the men lay on the snow. I gave my orders in a low voice, and heard
the harsh, metallic sound of the cocking, of rifles. For there, in the
middle of the plain, some strange object was moving about. It looked
like some enormous animal running about, now stretching out like a
serpent, now coiling itself into a ball, darting to the right, then to the
left, then stopping, and presently starting off again. But presently that
wandering shape came nearer, and I saw a dozen lancers at full gallop,
one behind the other. They had lost their way and were trying to find it.
"They were so near by that time that I could hear the loud breathing of
their horses, the clinking of their swords and the creaking of their