journey across a sea of floating ice and dead bodies towards the other
shore.

"_Tonnerre de Dieu_! I will knock some of you off into the water if
you don't make room for the major and his two companions," shouted the
grenadier. He raised his sabre threateningly, delayed the departure,
and made the men stand closer together, in spite of threatening yells.

"I shall fall in! . . . I shall go overboard! . . ." his fellows
shouted.

"Let us start! Put off!"

The major gazed with tearless eyes at the woman he loved; an impulse
of sublime resignation raised her eyes to heaven.

"To die with you!" she said.

In the situation of the folk upon the raft there was a certain comic
element. They might utter hideous yells, but not one of them dared to
oppose the grenadier, for they were packed together so tightly that if
one man were knocked down, the whole raft might capsize. At this
delicate crisis, a captain tried to rid himself of one of his
neighbors; the man saw the hostile intention of his officer, collared
him, and pitched him overboard. "Aha! The duck has a mind to drink.
. . . Over with you!--There is room for two now!" he shouted. "Quick,
major! throw your little woman over, and come! Never mind that old
dotard! he will drop off to-morrow!"

"Be quick!" cried a voice, made up of a hundred voices.