For two days the men in the ranks had been rushed forward at this unnatural gait and were moving like automatons.

Many of them fell by the wayside, but they were not permitted to lie there.

Instead of summoning the ambulance, they were lifted to their feet and flung back into the ranks.

Many of them were moving in their sleep, in that partly comatose state in which you have seen men during the last hours of a six days' walking match.
Their rules, so the sergeant said, were to halt every hour and then for ten minutes rest.

But that rule is probably only for route marching.
On account of the speed with which the surprise movement was made our halts were more frequent, and so exhausted were the men that when these "thank you, ma'ams" arrived, instead of standing at ease and adjusting their accoutrements, as though they had been struck with a club they dropped to the stones.