Tom Burke Of "Ours", Volume II

"What is it, Minette?" said I, for the third time, as I saw her lean her head from out the narrow casement, and look down into the valley beside the river; "what do you see there?" "I see a regiment of infantry coming along the road from Ulm, " said she, after a pause; "and now I perceive the lancers are following them, and the artillery too. Ah! and farther again, I see a great cloud of dust. Mere de Ciel! how tired and weary they all look! It surely cannot be a march in retreat; and, now that I think of it, they have no baggage, nor any wagons with them. " "That was a bugle call, Minette! Did you not hear it?" "Yes, it's a halt for a few minutes. Poor fellows! they are sadly exhausted; they cannot even reach the side of the way, but are lying down on the very road. I can bear it no longer. I must find out what it all means. " So saying, she threw round her a mantle which, Spanish fashion, she wore over her head, and hurried from the room. For some time I waited patiently for her return; but when half an hour elapsed, I arose and crept to the window. A succession of rocky precipices descended from the terrace on which the house stood, down to the very edge of the Danube, and from the point where I sat the view extended for miles in every direction. What, then, was my astonishment to see the wide plain, not marked by regular columns in marching array, but covered with straggling detachments, hurrying onward as if without order or discipline.