Litchfield enquirer., 1873-07-31
s.Just imagine my perpIexity I coul,

not for very shame leave the poor little soul to certain death, but did not at all see what to do with him. For moment, I was ready to grumble at the ll-fortune which had led me to the wagon. But the next instant felt that there was very little hope that, in case, I should ever see my own land again; and 1t seemed to me that I should die happier if had endeav- Ored to give the boy a chance for his life So wrapped him up in my blanket, and left him inside the tilt while went to try to find out my way back to the road by which the main body of the army was moving. Just then there was q Hull in the storm, and distinguished the gray masses of our troops moving slowly along the plain at some distance. On this, I hurried back to the wagon, fearing lest the snow should come on again and hide the road from me.
 s'Then, with my little charge beside me, l walked off towards it, dreadfully afraid lest the Cossacks should catch me, or that l should again lose my way. When we reached the line of march, found myself in the midst of gloomy, disheartened men, l saw one of my own comrades in the crowd, and asked where the regiment was He informed me that a great part of it had dispersed in the snow-storm, and that still more, of whom he was one, had fal- len behind, unable to keep up. Thus on- ly mere handful of men remained with the colors, which were some distance in advance. I did not make any effort to overtake them, as the child could not walk fast, and to outstrip him was not to be thought of. Just then, he seemed to have revived to wonderful extent, and marched along bravely, munching a bit | of hiCnuIf y,1xy 1ac ho1 oooI ly given him. His naive remarks made us laugh, in spite of the general gloom !; and when he insisted on blowing the bu- 1 gler's horn, from which he evoked most discordant noise, burst of merriment ran through our sombre party.
 Evening was now closing in, and the snow was again falling slowly, and in large flakes. Just at this time we entered a pine wood, where some of the men were attempting to light bivouac fires. Among them l recognized few of my own friends, seated round one which was as yet burning very slowly. We greeted one another with mutual satisfaction, and | they begged me to remain with them, say ing they had food, if the fire would but enable them to cook it.
 | "What did the food consist of? Horse | flesh, to be sure cut out of a staff off, cer's thoroughbred gray. O. you may laugh, Monsieur Jean, but but let me tell you there are times when horse-fesh is ac- counted great dainty. I've toasted a bit of my shoe-sole before now, but I con- fess 1t was rather tough. Anyhow, horse flesh was all we had that night, and if it were not done enough. why, that was the fault of the fire. Little Eugene got plen- ty for his share, ,--at first he did not like the look of his supper, but hunger over came his scruples. Then we put him next the fire, and one and all curled ourselves round 1t, and tried to sleep, taking it in turn to keep watch.
 ''Early next morning We continued our route. In passing through wood few miles beyond where we slept, beheld a wierd spectacle. About dozen lances of the guard had fallen asleep round their bivouac-fre without taking precautions to keep it alight. In the night their fire had gone out, and tAeEe lay the men, every one of them frozen to death. I made Flu gene turn away his head, that he might not see what we were passing; but the sight will haunt me to my dying day.
 ''Thus the retreat went on, each day colder and more wretched than the last; | alwaya the Cossacks hanging on our rear, picking up baggage, cutting off stragglers, and doing us more harm than all the en- emys regular troops. Eugene and I had a very marrow escape of them one after noon. It was near sun-down; no snow was falling, and the air was keen and cold. No enemy was visible, and our troops were struggling somewhat loosely over our line of march. As for me, I had fallen almost entirely behind the column with which was marching, for I was walking beside 2 tumbril, the driver of which had allowed Eugene to mount be- hind him. Suddenly heard one officer say to another, Look at those dark specks on the white field of snow,-what are they? they move The other took cut his glass, and after using It some seconds, observed, They look uneemraonly like cavalry. Yes, and they are cavalry too lone, two, three, squadrons. = and just look at that dark mass be- hind '
 "A message was immediately sent up to the column, saying, that body of cay airy would be at our heels in Sew min- utes; and the party with which I was marching, pushed on to have the protec- tion of the others. Before we could suc- ceed in this endeavor, and were yet some distance in the rear, we saw a body of Cossacks cnme sweeping up towards ns We halted, and every man who could use his bayonet rallied round the two officers. Careless of exact parade order, we formed into sort of q rough circle, wedged to- gether shoulder to shoulder, the first rank with one knee on the ground, the rear rank at the charge, while those whose muskets were dry made ready. In the centre were the two officers, few badly wounded men, and little Eugene, who was astonished, rather than frightened, at the wild appearance of the advancing horsemen.
 'fNot sound could be heard as the Cossacks galloped up to our circle, except the deep thunder of horse-hoofs, and the voice of our senior officer, who called on us to be steady lest we should Do ridden down. At first these wild horsemen seemed determined to charge us; but when close to the bayonet points. they swerved to the right and left, and passed Tn divided torrent round our circle, cut ting us off from the main column.
 t1n the rear of the latter we now heard firing begin, which showed us that the Cossacks had ventured to attack 1t. We were very sure they could not possibly break'the main body of the division, but 1t was impossible not to think that the at- tack might prevent OFF comrades from sending us aid. This was very discour- aging, but the mere fact of being closely surrounded by such a crew of barbarians was enough to make ones heart sink. The Cossacks themselves seemed quite sure we should fall an easy prey to them in the end, and more than one of them was killed close to the bayonets, while haunting us with our extremity.
 ''Thus, in dire need, we awaited what Providence should send us. when sudden ly we observed a comEotion among the Cossacks. Then came the soul reviving shout of ttive T Fhaoereur!" and as the CosGacks turned their bridles, some squad rons of lancers came charging up like a whirlwind. In front of them rode Murat. While at a considerable distance, his at- tention had been called to the cloud of Cossacks towering in the horizon. Anx- ious to seize so favorable an opportunity