The Red Laugh by Leonid Andreyev5/28/2023 ![]() ![]() But, nevertheless, it was better so: with closed eyelids, and for a long time, perhaps for several hours, I walked along with my eyes shut, hearing the multitude moving around me: the heavy, uneven tread of many feet, men's and horses, the grinding of iron wheels, crushing the small stones, somebody's deep strained breathing and the dry smacking of parched lips. ![]() The small shrunk pupil, as small as a poppy-seed, sought in vain for darkness under the closed eyelid the sun pierced the thin covering and penetrated into the tortured brain in a blood-red glow. The sun was so enormous, so fiery and terrible, that it seemed as if the earth had drawn nearer to it and would soon be burnt up altogether in its merciless rays. I do not know how many degrees there were-120°, 140°, or more-I only know that the heat was incessant, hopelessly even and profound. I felt it for the first time as we were marching along the road-marching incessantly for ten hours without stopping, never diminishing our step, never waiting to pick up those that had fallen, but leaving them to the enemy, that was moving behind us in a compact mass only three or four hours later effacing the marks of our feet by their own. ![]()
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