2/24 The woods on either side were full of stragglers, many of whom had dropped down on the wet ground and slept the sleep of complete exhaustion. Some, indeed, sick and helpless, died where they lay. Everything eatable and drinkable in Sezanne had vanished as a green field before a swarm of locusts when Marmont's division had come through some hours before. A huge fire was burning in the center of this open space. A cordon of grenadiers kept the ground about the fire clear of stragglers. |