114 THE BIVOUAC. 



clashing above his head, or laying 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 embarrass- 

 ment 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 unmown 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. Many of our little 

 Amazons crouched down, weary, and wet with the evening 

 dew ; some perhaps with spirits as well as corselets damped, 

 but when they awoke in the morning all their ardour was re- 

 newed. They cared not for the morning dew-drops, so bright 

 and glistening, and as they gaily shook them off, they dis- 

 cerned through the overtopping grass, the single dome of the 

 city of Fusca, the capital of the dusky Fuscans, which they 

 were about to besiege. Then, as with the valiant but weary 

 crusaders, when they first beheld the domes and minarets of 

 the Holy City, 



"All ha ciascuno 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 



