Can we find anything to eat ?" But we had come away too hurriedly to make any provision, and we knew too little of the roots among which we lay to venture any of them.

So we lay, hungry and sodden, in spite of the sun which presently set the flats steaming, and did not dare to move lest some sharp eye should spy us.

We could only hope for night and stars, and then sooner or later to come across some place where food could be got, if it was only green grain out of a field, for our stomachs were calling uneasily.
Twice during the day we heard guns at a distance, and that confirmed my idea that others besides ourselves had escaped, and by widening the chase it gave me greater hopes.

But it was weary work lying there, and more and more painful as regards our stomachs, which from crying came to clamour, and from clamour to painful groanings, and a hollow clapping together of their empty linings.
Not till nightfall did we dare to move, and very grateful we were that the night was fine with a glorious show of stars.

By them we steered due east, but still had to keep to the marsh-lands and away from the roads.