This difficulty surmounted, Heaven and your good swords must do the rest.' The proposal spread unanimous joy, and each leader hastened to get his men into order with as little noise as possible.

The army, moving by its right from off the ground on which they had rested, soon entered the path through the morass, conducting their march with astonishing silence and great rapidity.

The mist had not risen to the higher grounds, so that for some time they had the advantage of starlight.

But this was lost as the stars faded before approaching day, and the head of the marching column, continuing its descent, plunged as it were into the heavy ocean of fog, which rolled its white waves over the whole plain, and over the sea by which it was bounded.

Some difficulties were now to be encountered, inseparable from darkness,--a narrow, broken, and marshy path, and the necessity of preserving union in the march.