number, we collected the little strength we had remaining; we loosened some
planks on the front of the raft, and with some pretty long pieces of wood,
raised in the center a kind of platform, on which we reposed: all the
effects which we had been able to collect, were placed upon it, and served
to render it less hard; besides, they hindered the sea from passing with so
much facility through the intervals between the different pieces of the
raft; but the waves came across, and sometimes covered us entirely.

It was on this new theatre that we resolved to await death in a manner
worthy of Frenchmen, and with perfect resignation. The most adroit among
us, to divert our thoughts, and to make the time pass with more rapidity,
got their comrades to relate to us their passed triumphs, and sometimes, to
draw comparisons between the hardships they had undergone in their glorious
campaigns, and the distresses we endured upon our raft. The following is
what Lavillette the serjeant of artillery told us: "I have experienced, in
my various naval campaigns, all the fatigues, all the privations and all
the dangers, which it is possible to meet with at sea, but none of my past
sufferings, is comparable to the extreme pain and privations which I endure
here. In my last campaigns in 1813 and 1814, in Germany and France, I
shared all the fatigues which were alternately caused us by victory and
retreat, I was at the glorious days of Lutzen, Bautzen, Dresden, Leipzig,
Hanau, Montmirail, Champaubert, Montereau," &c. "Yes," continued he, "all
that I suffered in so many forced marches, and in the midst of the
privations which were the consequences of them, was nothing in comparison
with what I endure on this frightful machine. In those days, when the
French valour shewed itself in all its lustre, and always worthy of a free
people, I had hardly anything to fear, but during the battle; but here, I
often have the same dangers, and what is more dreadful, I have to combat
Frenchmen and comrades. I have to contend, besides, with hunger and thirst,
with a tempestuous sea, full of dangerous monsters, and with the ardour of