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Show "The position became critical. The wind grew colder and colder. Our men were cut off from the surrounding surround-ing world by impenetrable walls of snow. There seemed to be no hope of rescue. But duty, that great word, kept us up, and not the. sound of a complaint or reproach was heard. "At last we got orders to leave our burrows above the clouds and descend de-scend into the valley. We began the incredibly difficult task of finding our way down precipices coated thickly with snow. .The men followed one another in single file In endless chains, forcing their way through the deep snow with their chests. From time to time rifle shots were fired to guide those behind. "Only after a whole day of wandering wander-ing did we manage to assemble agaiu. The detachment I was with marched as follows: In front went 40 sappers, who cleared away the snow with spades. r Then came the rank and file, and after them a couple of guns, under un-der the escort of a picked company; then two more companies, and at some distance from them another company with the transport animals and pack animals. Finally, in the rear, came a party of scouts. During the march the storm rose to stupendous stupen-dous fury. The paths cleared by the sappers drifted up as rapidly as they were made, and were blotted out from view. "The hurricane hurled upon us dense clouds of snow. The men clung together in groups so as not to lose sight of one another. Icy snow penetrated pene-trated into the texture of the uniforms, uni-forms, and the cloth was transformed into a hard sheeting of ice. Masks of ice covered the soldiers' features. One of the horses, slipping on a patch, disappeared over a precipice. "By incredible exertions we somehow some-how managed to get our guns down into the valley. Here we were received re-ceived by a detachment stationed there, who helped us with the final work of lowering the guns with straps. We had done well. Despite the incredible difficulties of the path and mountain steeps under such conditions, con-ditions, too not a man bad perished; not one had been left behind or lost. At the close of our march we were well rewarded for all we had gone through by the panic which our unexpected un-expected appearance called forth in the Turkish trenches." |