"They had been careless. But I was already so near, and it is a wonder to me that they didn't notice me.
"I could have shot them; but that would have given the alarm. I didn't want to attack them with the bayonet, for they would have cried out and would have awakened the vedettes, who were somewhere behind them, and then the whole three companies would have been warned.
"I decided to strangle one of them. Ignatz would have to make way with the other.
"The fog had become thinner; it broke into streaks here and there. The sentinels were looking in my direction. I believed that they must see me. If I only could catch the expression on their faces!
"But I would not move; that was bound to betray me. If they had shot at me then I should never have seen them raising their rifles.
"Very slowly I moved my head. Then I noticed that they turned toward each other and talked. They talked continually, and that angered me. A sentinel ought not to talk.
"Then a third man came along—an officer. He inspected them, showed them something, looked sharply about, particularly toward me. But I had already sunk in the snow and did not move. Then he went his way. I did not see him again.
"Scarcely had the officer gone when the two Russians began to quarrel. At first I didn't understand why, but it soon became clear to me, because one of them, the smaller, went about thirty paces to the side, laid himself under a tree and wrapped himself in his cloak, as if he intended to sleep until the Judgment Day.
"It was plain that they were wrangling over which of them should go to sleep.
"I was so glad. Now I didn't need to wait for Ignatz, but could carry through the plan by myself."