Page:Awful phenomena of nature -- snow storms, third of March and twenty-third April, 1827.pdf/23

 fur. The officers and soldiers, overtaken with death-like numbness, with arms folded, and countenances fixed, followed each other. The guards fared no better than the rest. Covered with rags, and dying with hunger, and without arms, all resistance was impossible. The cry of "Cossack" put whole columns in consternation;— their line of march was strewed with bodies;— each bivouac resembled next day a field of battle. No sooner had one fallen from fatigue and cold, than he was stripped by his comrades to cover themselves with his clothes. All the houses and barns were set on fire, and every burnt space was covered with the bodies of those, who, having approached, and being unable to retire when the flames reached them, were consumed. The roads were strewed with prisoners unable to proceed. To such horrors succeeded others, if possible, still more dreadful. Pale and disfigured by the smoke, they were seen ranged round the fire like spectres, sitting on the dead bodies of their comrades, until, like them, they fell and expired. The feet of numbers, by being exposed to the cold, were gangrened, and reduced to a state of perfect imbecility —they with difficulty walked; others had lost their speech. Some, from excess of cold and hunger, were siezed with madness, and roasted and eat the flesh of their dead comrades, or gnawed their own hands and arms. In this state of frenzy, many rushed into the flames and perished, uttering the most dreadful cries. In ne it is impossible for any one, who has not