An infantry regiment which had left Tarutino three thousand strong but now numbered only nine hundred was one of the first to arrive that night at its halting placea village on the highroad. The quartermasters who met the regiment announced that all the huts were full of sick and dead Frenchmen, cavalrymen, and members of the staff. There was only one hut available for the regimental commander.

‘Yes,’ cried Frank, looking a little closer. ‘Small–clothes certainly, and—and—rough grey stockings, too. Do you know him, ma’am?’