left; the batteries at
Frenois, together with one which the enemy had carried across the river
and posted on the peninsula of Iges, had established, in connection
with the guns on Hattoy, an enfilading fire which swept the plateau de
l'Algerie in its entire length and breadth. The position of the company
now became most lamentable; the men, with death in front of them and on
their flank, knew not which way to turn or which of the menacing perils
to guard themselves against. In rapid succession three men were killed
outright and two severely wounded.

It was then that Sergeant Sapin met the death that he had predicted for
himself. He had turned his head, and caught sight of the approaching
missile when it was too late for him to avoid it.

"Ah, here it is!" was all he said.

There was no terror in the thin face, with its big handsome eyes; it was
only pale; very pale and inexpressibly mournful. The wound was in the
abdomen.

"Oh! do not leave me here," he pleaded; "take me to the ambulance, I
beseech you. Take me to the rear."

Rochas endeavored to silence him, and it was on his brutal lips to say
that it was useless to imperil two comrades' lives for one whose wound
was so evidently mortal, when his better nature made its influence felt
and he murmured:

"Be patient for a little, my poor boy, and the litter-bearers will come
and get you."

But the wretched man, whose tears were now flowing, kept crying, as one
distraught that his dream of happiness was vanishing with his trickling
life-blood:

"Take me away, take me away--"

Finally Captain Beaudoin, whose already unstrung nerves were further
irritated by his pitiful cries, called for two volunteers to carry him
to a little piece of woods a short way off where a flying ambulance
had been established. Chouteau and Loubet jumped to their feet
simultaneously, anticipating the others, seized the sergeant, one of
them by the shoulders, the other by the legs, and bore him away on a
run. They had gone but a little way, however, when they felt the body
becoming rigid in the final convulsion; he was dying.

"I say, he's dead," exclaimed Loubet. "Let's leave him here."

But Chouteau, without relaxing his speed, angrily replied:

"Go ahead, you booby, will you! Do you take me for a fool, to leave him
here and have them call us back!"

They pursued their course with the corpse until they came to the little
wood, threw it down at the foot of a tree, and went their