of superior
rank to the others, some was at once brought to him.

"Your king treats his prisoners well," the officer said. "We will
do everything we can for you."

Half an hour later, a doctor came to his side, and cutting open his
coat, applied a bandage to his shoulder.

"Is it a serious wound?" Charlie asked in Swedish.

"It might be worse, but it will be a troublesome one; it is a sabre
cut, and has cleft right through your shoulder bone. Are you hurt
anywhere else?"

"No, I do not think so. I was knocked down in the dark, and I
believe stunned, though I have a sort of recollection of being
trampled on, and I feel sore all over."

The surgeon felt his ribs and limbs, repeatedly asking him if it
hurt him. When he finished the examination, he said:

"You are doubtless badly bruised, but I don't think anything is
broken. Our Cossack horses are little more than ponies. Had they
been heavy horse, they would have trod your life out."

A few moments later there was a sound of trampling horses. They
halted close by. The officers drew back, and a moment later Marshal
Scheremetof, the commander of the Russian army, came up to
Charlie's side.

"Which of you speaks Swedish?" he asked the officers, and one of
them stepped forward.

"Ask him what force was this that attacked us, and with what
object."

As Charlie saw no reason for concealment, he replied that it was a
body of four hundred Swedish infantry, and a troop of horse, with
four guns, and that their object was to enter the town.

"They must have been mad to attempt to cut their way through our
whole army," the general said, when the answer was translated to
him; "but, by Saint Paul, they nearly succeeded. The Swedes are
mad, but this was too much even for madmen. Ask him whence the
force came. It may be that a large reinforcement has reached
Vyburg, without our knowing it."

"We arrived two days since," Charlie replied, when the question was
put to him. "We came in a ship together from Revel."

"Did others come with you?" was next asked, at the general's
dictation.

"No other ship but ours has arrived."

"But others are coming?"

As Charlie had no doubt that great efforts would be made to send
further reinforcements, he replied:

"Many more troops are coming, but I cannot say when they will
arrive."

"Will it be soon?"

"That I cannot say, but I don't think they will come from Revel.
There was a talk of large reinforcements, but whether fro