The floor was covered with straw into which the feet sank. The ladies
in the rear, having brought with them small copper foot-warmers,
heated by means of a chemical coal, lighted these apparatuses, and
for some time, in a low voice, they enumerated their advantages,
repeating to each other things which they had not known for a long
time.

At last six horses instead of four having been harnessed to the coach,
on account of the difficult roads and heavier draft, a voice from
the outside asked: "Is everybody in?"--To which a voice replied
from the inside:--"Yes"--And the coach started.

The coach proceeded slowly, slowly, at a snail's pace. The wheels
sank into the snow; the entire body of the carriage groaned with
creaks; the animals were slipping, puffing, steaming, and the
driver's gigantic whip was cracking continuously, flying in every
direction, coiling up and unrolling itself like a thin snake, and
suddenly lashing some rounded back, which then stretched out under
a more violent effort.

Imperceptibly the day was breaking. Those light flakes that a
traveler, a pure blood native of Rouen, had compared to a rain of
cotton, had stopped falling. A murky light filtered through the big,
dark and heavy clouds, which rendered more dazzling the whiteness
of the country where one could see now a line of tall trees spangled
with hoar frost, now a cottage with a snow hood.

Inside the coach, the travelers eyed each other inquisitively in
the melancholy light of the dawn.