good fires, the soft grass which stuffs their mattresses at night— in short, of all the delights of the mountain; for that they are soon going to make the acquaintance of a region where they will find nothing but sun and sand. They go to sleep at an early hour. One man in each mess remains awake, preparing the soup which his comrades will eat before starting next morning.

The second day, the trees are scattered further apart, the hills are lower, the springs and watercourses more rare; the troop has suffered some fatigue; but there is no great difference between to-day's and yesterday's events; the bivouac is good; the soldier, refreshed and plentifully fed, resigns himself contentedly to sleep.

The third day they start an hour before the dawn. They must push forward, for they begin to enter the sphere of events which may necessitate great activity. There is no time to lose. When the departure thus takes place by night, it is not rare to see the officers shivering with cold, even in summer, and wrap themselves in their winter clothes; whilst a few hours afterwards they are bathed in perspiration, and are almost exhausted and suffocated with heat.

The border of the Sahara is now approached; the ground is more sandy; nothing is to be seen, except a few wretched bushes at wide intervals. The party has great difficulty in finding water for the coffee, and none is met with till the evening, on the spot where the bivouac is installed. But, attention to the order given out! No tents are to be pitched; there is to be a three hours' rest, and then a night-march... There are hopes of surprising an enemy's camp the following morning. "That's it," murmurs the trooper; "the plot begins to thicken. We know what that means. We shall have to cut along like greyhounds; and, just as we think we are going to lay hands on something or other, we shall be nicely surprised to find there is nothing to surprise."

They march all night. What a long night it is! the footsoldier, already fatigued when he recommenced his march, begins to try hard to bear up against it, and to make great efforts. The moment when he is completely overcome by sleep, is especially painful. In this somnolent condition, he slumbers, stumbles, wakes up, and slumbers again several times in the course of a minute; and this torture lasts for several hours... Yet this first trial passes off tolerably well; nevertheless, several men, five or six only, have been obliged to be carried in panniers by mules belonging to the hospital service... Self-esteem is excessively excited; emulation and esprit-de-corps is in all its energy; the Zouaves, the foot-rifles, the companies, and even the different

messes, strive which shall produce the fewest weary men. In the morning, as usual, there is no enemy to be found; and yet, in spite of former repeated deceptions, they had been kept up by the hope of striking a decisive blow. One day's success, a victory, is a recompense for all previous suffering.

The camp is formed. The column will soon be able to take the repose of which it stands in great need. The aspect of the country is that of an immense plain, covered here and there with tufts of alfa, thyme, wormwood and other scrubby plants. The scanty brushwood hardly furnishes enough fuel to feed the kitchen fires; the water is of moderate quality. The soldier has lost his gaiety, but the old hand still indulges in a little raillery. The next day the march continues; the men are warned that there will be neither wood nor water for the coffee; every man, therefore, makes a little faggot, which he adds to the load upon his knapsack; every mess, which we have seen consists of from seven to ten men, fills the great can and the boiler with water. Two men carry the latter by means of a tent-pole passed under the handle, and two others the can... What a task for these foot-soldiers, already so hampered and heavy laden! The day threatens to be hot; and, before they have travelled three hours, they are fatigued. The water, incessantly agitated in the vessels which contain it, exposed to a high temperature, and receiving every instant the dust from without, becomes muddy. The men, impatient at the restraint imposed on their march by the necessity to carry a little water two by two, complain of their sufferings... The troop stops to make the grand halt (the coffee), which ought to divide the day's march in two, and it is scarcely seven o'clock in the morning. At eight, they are obliged to start again; the country becomes more and more wretched; the heat is very great; from time to time an old African may be heard to grumble. "Look out for squalls; I feel my rheumatism, or my wound; most certainly we are going to have the sirocco!"... And in fact, before long the horizon is tinged with a reddish glare, similar to the light which gleams from a building on fire in the distance; the atmosphere is filled with burning dust; something is heard like the roar of the sea or the growling of thunder a great way off. There can be no mistake, it is it, the sirocco, the terror of the desert, which comes impetuous and scorching, licking up everything with its tongues of fire... Men's palates are dried up, salivation becomes impossible; the whole interior of the mouth is parched, and causes surprisingly painful sensations; dust as fine as wood-ashes, raised by the march of the column and the wind, penetrates into the eyes and nostrils, which it chokes and clogs, as well as the ears.

Then begins a torture difficult to describe: what can be done? They are just as far off from the water they have left behind them, as they are from that before them; they must continue their march, happen what may. The soldier feels thirst instinctively; he goes on, and on, but in what a state!... In the midst of sufferings such as these, when they are prolonged too far, men have been known to commit suicide; others become temporarily delirious; all are in a state of nervous excitement, of concentrated irritation, which gives to this troop of human beings the aspect of a band of maniacs... With distorted features, with fierce, wild eyes starting from their sockets, the wretched foot-soldier is subjected to a terrible ordeal. This is the time for deceptive and tantalising visions; every one has before his eyes the image of a cool spring at the foot of a shady tree... "O!" he says to himself," if I can ever return to such or such a brook, I will pass my whole life beside it. What more can a man desire, when he is able to roll and revel in a cool stream, to make it trickle down his arms, to splash it with his hands, to drink it and enjoy it?"

But what is passing in the vanguard? It is not a rumor which spreads; not a word has been spoken since the sirocco came on; but there is a certain movement, a hurrying forward, which can only be the effect of the presence of water... In fact, the detachment at the head has caught sight of a cistern which ought to contain water; they approach-deception! The little well is filled with the carcasses of sheep, come from a distance, probably driven by the south wind, to die upon a few drops of moisture... Nevertheless, there is still perhaps a little liquid; the first comers remove the dead sheep, to clear the spring, but all in vain; a little brackish mud is all they can obtain, and such as it is they swallow it greedily. Meanwhile, the second detachment of men are sucking the wool of the dead sheep, in the hope that it may retain a little moisture.

A sort of mechanical movement in advance continues. The only care is to preserve sufficient strength to reach the springs as soon as possible; the wind continues as high and as hot as ever; it forces its way into the mouth, it hinders respiration, it blinds, it deafens, and a relentless sun darts its burning rays incessantly ... At last night comes on, bringing a slight relief. If the sirocco continues to blow, at least the burning sun has disappeared, and the men drag themselves as far as the water-the good and the beautiful water. How they caress it, how they plunge their arms and their heads into it... Water, at this moment, is the first marvel of creation. But what a toil to reach it; how many

comrades are still on the road, lying panting on the ground: how many will be a long, long time before they join the first

arrivals!

The enemy is close by; and a fresh start must be made, in the hope of taking his camp. The column is apprised that it is perhaps on the point of deciding grave events, and of covering itself with glory. The general has appealed to the usual energy of his soldiers, and spoken of honor, of generous sentiments, and he can do what he likes with the worthy troopers... Once more they are informed that the country to be traversed produces absolutely nothing: they must carry water and wood; and that is not all, for they must take charge of the grass which is to feed the oxen which accompany the little army. Under extraordinary circumstances like these, footsoldiers will carry, besides their usual burden, water, two by two, a little faggot of wood, and a bunch of alfa for the beasts. This bunch, stuck on the top of the knapsack, rises higher than the men's heads, and forms a sort of mountain on their backs, which renders them invisible on three sides at least.

The troop is again obliged to have coffee early, in order to profit by the small supply of muddy liquid still remaining in the cans and the boilers. The march is resumed. We are completely in the Algerian Sahara, in one of its worst parts; nothing is to be seen but dust and sun... Starting at two in the morning, we have had coffee by seven; about five in the afternoon we come upon some wells. There is to be a halt for two or three hours; just time enough to prepare some rice. In the dismal region where we are, water is found only in little wells placed close to each other, like organ-pipes, or the cells in a honey-comb... And, what is extraordinary at first sight, some of these wells are salt, others not, without its being possible to remark any order in their disposition. Out of fifty wells, for instance, there will be thirty of one sort and twenty of the other, without any order in regard to their place on the ground. Soon the excess of the fatigue begins to declare itself; press forward they must notwithstanding. Messages from the general are constantly repeated that the enemy is there, close by, and that they may capture his camp. Once in sight of it, one battalion will proceed to the right, another to the left, while the third will rush down upon him; the cavalry will cut off the enemy's retreat.

Then begins a veritable march of suffering. The men, unable to stand steadily on their crippled feet, limp onwards, supporting themselves mainly on the tips of their toes. It is difficult to describe the movements by which men, overwhelmed with

fatigue, contrive to drag their aching limbs along, by the power of their energetic will It is at once the gait of an idiot, of a paralytic, and of a drunken man. At every instant the general is obliged to stop the vanguard, to allow the body of the column to join them. It takes a long time to make a little way.

Still, examples of courage abound. A rifleman showed symptoms of great weakness. Several times he was near falling; he was advised to ask for the use of a pannier. "Not I," he answered, "I have never yet mounted the mules, and I hope I shall not have to make their acquaintance." And he continued to drag himself along. At last he sunk, and fainted; he was carried to the hospital department. A few minutes afterwards, he was dead. The heroism of this simple rifleman, with no other motive than his soldierly reputation in the eyes of his comrades, made him struggle with fatigue to the death.

...

And thus the end of the day is reached, and the position approached which was indicated to the general as the site of the enemy's camp. At a final halt, the column is rallied as much as possible; every man prepares to make a supreme effort.. They advance in silence; being at the foot of the rising ground which hides the Arab encampment from view; they mount it, and behold—nothing. The vigilant and indefatigable Arabs have raised their camp, at the very first signal of their outpost. Only an hour ago they were here; witness the fires not yet extinguished, the skins of fresh-slain beasts, and numerous other recent traces With what, and how, is it possible to pursue them? They are all in high vigor, and have already made a good start in advance. Their opponents, certainly, would sustain a conflict, and do honor to their flag; but another forced march, under present circumstances, is an utter impossibility.

The general decides to bivouac, after having kept his column on the march for two-and-forty hours. The excursion continues several days longer, in the same style, and then they return, perhaps only to perform new peregrinations.

These sallies into the Desert are always paid for, after the return, by a great deal of sickness amongst the troops, mostly acute dysenteries or intractable fevers. Household Words.

CAIRO.

TO-NIGHT I am steeped in the odoriferous dreaminess of Oriental romance, lounging arm-in-arm with the spirits of departed sultans, grand viziers, and chiefs of all the eunuchs, with the bright rays of an Egyptian moon lighting up mosque,