Twelve degrees of frost "centigrade" is no joke.

I was talking to some officers of Zouaves who had been twenty hours at the outposts.

They said that during all this time they had not ventured to light a fire, and that this morning their wine and bread were both frozen.

In the tents there are small stoves, but they give out little warmth.

Even inside the deserted houses it is almost as cold as outside.