Indeed, although the Tartar outposts
must have been drawn up on both banks, the raft had a good chance
of passing unperceived. It was not likely either that the besiegers
would have barred the river above Irkutsk, since they knew that the
Russians could not expect any help from the south of the province.
Besides this, before long Nature would herself establish a barrier,
by cementing with frost the blocks of ice accumulated between
the two banks.
Perfect silence now reigned on board the raft. The voices
of the pilgrims were no longer heard. They still prayed,
but their prayer was but a murmur, which could not reach as far
as either bank. The fugitives lay flat on the platform,
so that the raft was scarcely above the level of the water.
The old boatman crouched down forward among his men,
solely occupied in keeping off the ice blocks, a maneuver
which was performed without noise.
The drifting of the ice was a favorable circumstance so long as it
did not offer an insurmountable obstacle to the passage of the raft.
If that object had been alone on the water, it would have run
a risk of being seen, even in the darkness, but, as it was,
it was confounded with these moving masses, of all shapes and sizes,
and the tumult caused by the crashing of the blocks against each
other concealed likewise any suspicious noises.
There was a sharp frost. The fugitives suffered cruelly,
having no other shelter than a few branches of birch.
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