Frequent wading of the streams chilled them.

Morning would find them numb, haggard, spiritless, unfitted for the march of the day.
A week of this cold weather, lack of food, and overwork produced their effect.

The old and the weak became too feeble to walk; then they began to die, peacefully, smoothly, as a lamp ceases to burn when the oil is gone.

At first the deaths occurred irregularly; then they were frequent; soon it was rarely that they left a camp-ground without burying one or more of their number.
Nor was death long confined to the old and the infirm.

Young men, strong at the start, worn out now by the rigours of the march, began to drop.