The infantry picket, stationed on the knoll at the
left, stood in perfect silhouette against the light of the sunset; no
less distinct were the stacks of muskets, the form of the sentry, the
groups of soldiers, and the smoke of the smouldering camp-fire.
At the right and left of the slope, on the black, sodden earth, the
tents gleamed white; and behind the tents, black, stood the bare trunks
of the platane forest, which rang with the incessant sound of axes, the
crackling of the bonfires, and the crashing of the trees as they fell
under the axes. The bluish smoke arose from tobacco-pipes on all sides,
and vanished in the transparent blue of the frosty sky. By the tents and
on the lower ground around the arms rushed the Cossacks, dragoons, and
artillerists, with great galloping and snorting of horses as they
returned from getting water. It began to freeze; all sounds were heard
with extraordinary distinctness, and one could see an immense distance
across the plain through the clear, rare atmosphere. The groups of the
enemy, their curiosity at seeing the soldiers satisfied, quietly
galloped off across the fields, still yellow with the golden corn-
stubble, toward their auls, or villages, which were visible beyond the
forest, with the tall posts of the cemeteries and the smoke rising in
the air.
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