114 THE BIVOUAC. 



clashing above his head,, or lying across his path in intricate 

 confusion, obliging him alternately to climb, to leap over, and 

 creep under these and a thousand other impeding obstacles; 

 only we say, imagine the fatigue and difficulty of such a pro- 

 gress to a single individual, and its hundred-fold embarrassment 

 to one of a phalanx constrained to keep together and proceed 

 in a given course, and you must allow no little share of skill, 

 perseverance, discipline, activity, and strength to the Rufian 

 army, in its laborious passage across an uninown field. The 

 march being too long to accomplish at a stretch, they were 

 obliged to bivouac for the night upon the plain of which a 

 small portion yet remained to be traversed. ]\Iam of our little 

 Amazons crouched down, weary, and wet with the evening dew ; 

 some perhaps with spirits as well as corselets damped, but 

 when thr\ uwokr iii the morning all their ardour was renewed. 

 Th<;\ cared not for the morning dew-drops, so bright and 

 glistening, and as they gaily shook them off, they discerned 

 through the overtopping grass, the single dome of the city of 

 Fusca, the capital of the dusky Tuscans, which they were about 

 to be.-ii-ge. Then, as with the valiant but weary crusaders, 

 when they first beheld the domes and minarets of the Holy 

 City, 



"All ha ciascuuo al core, ed all al piede : " 



both their hearts and heels acquired wings. Onward they 

 pressed, while some of the most ardent of the assailants, 

 leaving the main body behind, rushed forward to attack the 



