Then the longing was directed to the wounded
and sick. Since they could not recover, it was as well to release
them from their tortures; and, as soon as a man began to stagger, all
exclaimed that he was now lost, and ought to be made use of for the
rest. Artifices were employed to accelerate their death; the last
remnant of their foul portion was stolen from them; they were trodden
on as though by inadvertence; those in the last throes wishing to make
believe that they were strong, strove to stretch out their arms, to
rise, to laugh. Men who had swooned came to themselves at the touch of
a notched blade sawing off a limb;--and they still slew, ferociously and
needlessly, to sate their fury.
A mist heavy and warm, such as comes in those regions at the end
of winter, sank on the fourteenth day upon the army. This change
of temperature brought numerous deaths with it, and corruption was
developed with frightful rapidity in the warm dampness which was kept
in by the sides of the mountain. The drizzle that fell upon the corpses
softened them, and soon made the plain one broad tract of rottenness.
Whitish vapours floated overhead; they pricked the nostrils, penetrated
the skin, and troubled the sight; and the Barbarians thought that
through the exhalations of the breath they could see the souls of their
companions.
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