But I cannot believe (as certainly I do not remember) that of my own motion I crawled outside the hut and stretched myself on the frozen ground, or that, exhausted as I was, I could have walked ten yards in my sleep.
At all events, the chill of the bitter dawn awoke me there; and with a yawn I stretched out both arms.

My right hand encountered--what ?-- the body of a man stretched beside me! Still dazed and numb, I rolled over to my elbow, raised myself a little and peered into his face.
It was pinched and cold.

Its eyes stared straight up at the dawn.
From it my gaze travelled slowly over the faces of three other men laid out accurately alongside of him, feet to feet, head to head.
I sank back, not yet comprehending, gazed up at the grey sky for a while, then slowly raised myself on my left elbow.
On that side lay a score of sleepers, all flat on their backs, and all equally still.

Then I understood and leapt up with a scream.
It was a line of corpses, and I had been laid out beside them for burial at dawn.
A sleepy orderly--a friend of mine--poked his head out of the doorway of the next hut.

I pointed to the spot where I had been lying.
"They must ha' done it in the dark," he said, slowly regarding the bodies.
I suppose that my story, spreading about the camp, at length penetrated to headquarters: for on Christmas Day, a transport arriving and landing some light guns and a detachment of artillery, I was sent forward with them towards Villa del Ciervo on the left bank of the Agueda, where, by all accounts, the 52nd were posted.
Our battery was but six light six-pounders; yet even with these we moved over the frozen and slippery roads at a snail's pace, the men tearing their boots to ribbons as they hung on to the drag-ropes--for the artillery captain was a martinet and refused to lock the wheels, declaring that it would damage the carriages.