I was told an anecdote which exemplifies the
expedients the soldiers resorted to in order to get out of the
dreaded camp. One evening, about half an hour before sunset, a woman
presented herself at the gate, carrying on her head one of the large
flat baskets used for keeping bread; she said, with tears in her
eyes; that her brother was lying down some short distance from the
fence so dangerously wounded that he could not walk; she had brought
him a little bread and water, etc. The guards allowed her to pass.
A few minutes afterwards a soldier presented himself at the gate,
and asked if they had seen a woman go through, giving the description
of the one that had just gone out. The guards said that they had;
the soldier appeared to be in a fearful passion, and said that she
was his wife, who had made an assignation to run away with her
lover; and he threatened to report them to the Emperor. The guards
told him that she could not be far off, and that he had better go
quickly and overtake her; off he went: as might be expected, neither
appeared again.
To the annoyances and difficulties caused by the presence of large
bodies of armed peasants, day and night hanging about the outskirts
of the camp, were soon added the evils of famine: a small Abyssinian
loaf cost a dollar; a salt and a half, a dollar; butter could not
by any means be obtained; and hundreds died daily of want and
starvation.
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