CHAPTER SIXThe long winding column of men and mules climbed slowly up the rough mountain track towards the frontier.
Behind the file of soldiers in their stained and dusty uniforms, the sun glinting on their muskets, were the guns, pulled joltingly over the uneven going by bullock teams and followed by hundreds of peasants carrying shot and shell.
The bells on the mules mingled with the shouts of the muleteers and the screeching of wagons.
In contrast to the Commissionaires with their epaulettes and medals and the muleteers with their colourful rags and guitars, were the women who brought up the rear of the army.
The Officers’ ladies, befeathered and bejewelled as no respectable wives would have been, were in carriages, while the women of the ordinary rank and file, looking tired and o
