صفحة 817 من 3800

As soon as an Austrian officer showed himself near a commanding

officer's quarters, the regiment began to move: the soldiers ran

from the fires, thrust their pipes into their boots, their bags

into the carts, got their muskets ready, and formed rank. The

officers buttoned up their coats, buckled on their swords and

pouches, and moved along the ranks shouting. The train drivers

and orderlies harnessed and packed the wagons and tied on the

loads. The adjutants and battalion and regimental commanders

mounted, crossed themselves, gave final instructions, orders, and

commissions to the baggage men who remained behind, and the

monotonous tramp of thousands of feet resounded. The column moved

forward without knowing where and unable, from the masses around

them, the smoke and the increasing fog, to see either the place

they were leaving or that to which they were going.