an uproar, were expending their thunders on the
adjacent fields; had that concentric fire been focused upon the city,
had the batteries on those commanding heights once begun to play upon
Sedan, it would have been reduced to ashes and pulverized into dust in
less than fifteen minutes. But now the projectiles were again commencing
to fall upon the houses, the crash that told of ruin and destruction
was heard more frequently. One exploded in the Rue des Voyards, another
grazed the tall chimney of the factory, and the bricks and mortar came
tumbling to the ground directly in front of the shed where the surgeons
were at work. Bouroche looked up and grumbled:

"Are they trying to finish our wounded for us? Really, this racket is
intolerable."

In the meantime an attendant had seized the captain's leg, and the
major, with a swift circular motion of his hand, made an incision in the
skin below the knee and some two inches below the spot where he intended
to saw the bone; then, still employing the same thin-bladed knife, that
he did not change in order to get on more rapidly, he loosened the skin
on the superior side of the incision and turned it back, much as one
would peel an orange. But just as he was on the point of dividing the
muscles a hospital steward came up and whispered in his ear:

"Number two has just slipped his cable."

The major did not hear, owing to the fearful uproar.

"Speak up, can't you! My ear drums are broken with their d-----d
cannon."

"Number two has just slipped his cable."

"Who is that, number two?"

"The arm, you know."

"Ah, very good! Well, then, you can bring me number three, the jaw."

And with wonderful dexterity, never changing his position, he cut
through the muscles clean down to the bone with a single motion of his
wrist. He laid bare the tibia and fibula, introduced between them an
implement to keep them in position, drew the saw across them once, and
they were sundered. And the foot remained in the hands of the attendant
who was holding it.

The flow of blood had been small, thanks to the pressure maintained by
the assistant higher up the leg, at the thigh. The ligature of the three
arteries was quickly accomplished, but the major shook his head, and
when the assistant had removed his fingers he examined the stump,
murmuring, certain that the patient could not hear as yet:

"It looks bad; there's no blood coming from the arterioles."

And he completed his diagnosis of th