Some in an instant were asleep.

I do not mean that some sat down; I mean that the whole column lay flat in the road.

The officers also, those that were not mounted, would tumble on the grass or into the wheat-field and lie on their backs, their arms flung out like dead men.

To the fact that they were lying on their field-glasses, holsters, swords, and water- bottles they appeared indifferent.

At the rate the column moved it would have covered thirty miles each day.