“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 knowing what to do, and quite unable to make up my mind 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, and said:  ’That is very good of you, my children, and I will take my share of the burden.’

“We could indistinctly see the trees of a little wood on the left, through the darkness, and several men went into it, and soon came back with a bundle of branches twisted into a litter.

“‘Who will lend his cloak?  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, and very pleased I was with my charge.

“We started off much more briskly, as if we had been having a drink of wine, and I even heard a few jokes.  A woman is quite enough to electrify Frenchmen, you see.  The soldiers, who were reanimated and warm, had almost reformed their ranks, and an old franc-tireur[16] I who was following the litter, waiting for his turn to replace the first of his comrades who might give in, said to one of his neighbors, loud enough for me to hear: 

[Footnote 16:  Self-constituted volunteers, in the Franco-German war of 1870-71, whom the Germans often made short work of, when caught.—­TRANSLATOR.]

“’I am not a young man, now; but by ——­, there is nothing like the women to make you feel queer from head to foot!’”

“We went on, almost without stopping, until three o’clock in the morning, when suddenly our scouts fell back again, and soon the whole detachment showed nothing but a vague shadow on the ground, as the men lay on the snow, and 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 might have been taken for some enormous animal running about, which unfolded itself like a serpent, or came together into a coil, suddenly went quickly to the right or left, stopped, and then went on again.  But presently that wandering shape came near, and I saw a dozen lancers, one behind the other, who were trying to find their way, which they had lost.”