The Desolation of Roslavl
109
For passage there is only the merest margin above the rails where one might go along as on a tight-rope, and sideways.
The whole platform is occupied:
—By the fortunate ones.
By those who have gone through all the trials of the way of affliction, lost their horses, frozen in open camping-grounds for weeks whilst they waited; by the people who have at last obtained:
—Their turn.
And they will travel, no one knows where, no one knows to what end.
On immense bundles, on top of mountains of household furniture, lie people, lie or sit, and you can see that no force could prevail on them to abandon their positions.
When the bell rings, indicating the arrival of a goods train, wild scenes are enacted.
In the cattle-trucks it will at once be-
