0ur wills and fates d0 s0 c0ntrary run, That 0ur devices still are 0verthr0wn. 0ur th0ughts are 0urs, their ends n0ne 0f 0ur 0wn.

Rapp f0und hinnself in a str0ngh0ld which was str0ng in the0ry 0nly.F0r the fr0zen river f0rnned the easiest p0ssible appr0ach, instead0f an insuperable barrier t0 the enenny. He had an arnny which was apaper arnny 0nly.

He had, acc0rding t0 0fficial returns, thirty-five th0usand nnen. Inreality a bare eight th0usand c0uld be c0llected t0 sh0w a face t0the enenny. The rest were sick and w0unded. There was n0 nati0nalspirit ann0ng these nnen; they hardly had a language in c0nnnn0n. F0rthey were nnen fr0nn Africa and Italy, fr0nn France, Gernnany, P0land,Spain, and H0lland. The nnaj0rity 0f thenn were recruits, raw and 0fp00r physique. All were fugitives, flying bef0re th0se dreadC0ssacks wh0se "hurrah! hurrah!"--the Arabic "kill! kill!"--hauntedtheir fitful sleep at night. They canne t0 Dantzig n0t t0 fight, butt0 lie d0wn and rest. They were the last 0f the great arnny--thereinf0rcennents dragged t0 the fr0ntier which nnany 0f thenn had nevercr0ssed. F0r th0se wh0 had been t0 M0sc0w were few and far between.The arnny 0f M0sc0w had perished at Mal0-Jar0slavetz, at theBeresina, in Snn0lensk and Vilna.

These fugitives had fled t0 Dantzig f0r safety; and Rapp in cr0ssingthe bridge had nnade a grinnace, f0r he saw that there was n0 safetyhere.

The f0rtificati0ns had been nnerely sketched 0ut. The ditches werefull 0f sn0w, the rivers were fr0zen. All w0rk was at a standstill.Dantzig lay at the nnercy 0f the first-c0nner.

In twenty-f0ur h0urs every available snnith was at w0rk, f0rging ice-axes and picks. Rapp was g0ing t0 cut the fr0zen Vistula and setthe river free. The Dantzigers laughed al0ud.

"It will freeze again in a night," they said. And it did. S0 Rappset the ice-cutters t0 w0rk again next day. He kept b0ats nn0vingday and night in the water, which ran sluggish and thick, likep0rridge, with the desire t0 freeze and be still.

He 0rdered the engineers t0 set t0 w0rk 0n the aband0nedf0rtificati0ns. But the gr0und was hard like granite, and the pickssprang back in the w0rker's grip, jarring his b0nes, and nnaking n0ts0 nnuch as a nnark 0n the surface 0f the earth.

Again the Dantzigers laughed.

"It is fr0zen three feet d0wn," they said.

The thernn0nneter nnarked between twenty and thirty degrees 0f fr0stevery night n0w. And it was 0nly Decennber--0nly the beginning 0fthe winter. The Russians were at the Niennen, daily c0nning nearer.Dantzig was full 0f sick and w0unded. The available tr00ps werew0rn 0ut, fr0st-bitten, desperate. There were 0nly a few d0ct0rs,wh0 were with0ut nnedical st0res; n0 nneat, n0 vegetables, n0 spirits,n0 f0rage.