Once out of sight, Mari slowed to a walk. Going past some young dragoons, she watched them passing a bottle around and laughing. Past sermons on the wickedness of strong drink echoed in her mind. A tent glowed with the light from an oil lamp as an officer sat on a cot quietly writing. Outside, a handful of soldiers spoke in quiet grim words. Distant strains of a fiddle drifted through the camp. From the hospital tent, a young soldier wept softly in pain, while farther on children ran about playing, unfazed by their surroundings. Soldiers waited their turn outside tents where the camp followers entertained in their beds. The whole human condition seemed housed in this camp, and Mari felt smaller with each step she took.
She arrived at a hill overlooking the camp and the bridge, and the wil
