They had lain in their sodden clothes all night: but of their boots, I found, they were as careful as dandies, and to grease them would hoard up a lump of fat even while their stomachs craved for it.
Sergeant Henderson motioned me to pull on mine.

From my precious bugle I had never parted, even to unsling it, since leaving Figueira.
And so I stood ready.
We bundled on our great-coats, climbed down the ladder, and filed out into the street.

It was dark yet, though I could not guess the hour; and bitter cold, with an east wind which seemed to set the very stars shivering.

The men stamped their feet on the frozen road as we hurried to the alarm-post, and there I walked into a crowd of dark figures which closed around me at once.

For a moment I supposed the whole army to be massed there in the darkness, and wondered foolishly if we were to assault Ciudad Rodrigo at once.