During the fight, however, whilst the artillery duel was in
progress, quite half of Jaureguiberry's men had taken themselves off
without waiting for orders. I believe that on the night of January 15 he
could not have mustered more than 7000 men for action. Yet only two days
previously he had had nearly three times that number with him.
Nevertheless, much might be pleaded for the men. The weather was still
bitterly cold, snow lay everywhere, little or no food could be obtained,
the commissariat refraining from requisitioning cattle at the farms, for
all through the departments for Mayenne and Ille-et-Vilaine cattle-plague
was raging. Hungry, emaciated, faint, coughing incessantly, at times
affected with small-pox, the men limped or trudged on despairingly. Their
boots were often in a most wretched condition; some wore sabots, others,
as I said once before, merely had rags around their poor frost-bitten
feet. And the roads were obstructed by guns, vans, waggons, vehicles of
all kinds. Sometimes an axle had broken, sometimes a horse had fallen dead
on the snow, in any case one or another conveyance had come to a
standstill, and prevented others from pursuing their route.
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