During this time we had made 25 miles.
At Plechtchenissi we found, at a kind of farm, sick, wounded and dead, all
lying pell-mell. There was no room for us in the house; we were obliged to
camp outside, but great fires compensated us for the want of shelter.
"We decided to rest during part of the night. While some of the soldiers
roasted slices of horse meat and others prepared oatmeal cakes from oats
which they had found in the village, we tried to sleep. But the frightful
scenes through which we had passed kept us excited, and sleep would not
come.
"Toward 1 o'clock in the morning we left for Molodetchno. The cold was
frightful. Our way was marked by the light of the bivouac fires which were
seen at intervals and by cadavers of men and horses lying everywhere, and
as the moon and the stars were out we could see them well. Our column
became smaller all the while, officers and men disappeared without our
noticing their departure, without our knowing where they had fallen behind;
and the cold increased constantly. When we stopped at some bivouac fire it
seemed to us as if we were among the dead; nobody stirred, only
occasionally would one or the other of those sitting around raise his head,
look upon us with glassy eyes, rest again, probably never to rise again.
What made the march during that night especially disagreeable was the icy
wind whipping our faces. Toward 8 o'clock in the morning we perceived a
church tower. That is Molodetchno, we all cried with one voice.
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