len, desperately
wounded; Macwitty had been shot through the head.

[Illustration: A shell had struck Terence's horse.]

A shell had struck Terence's horse and, bursting, had carried off
the rider's leg above the knee. The men near him uttered a
simultaneous cry as he fell and, regardless of the fight, oblivious
to the storm of shot and shell, had knelt beside him. Terence was
perfectly sensible.

"Do one of you give me my flask out of my holster," he said, "and
another cut off the leg of my trousers, as high as you can above
the wound. That is right. Now for the bandages."

As every soldier in the regiment carried one in his hat, half a
dozen of these were at once produced.

"Is it bleeding much?" he asked.

"Not much, colonel."

"That is fortunate. Now find a smooth round stone. Lay it on the
inside of the leg, just below where you have cut the trousers.

"Now put a bandage round and round, as tightly as you can do it.
That is right.

"Now take the ramrod of one of my pistols, put it through the
bandage, and then twist it. You need not be afraid of hurting me;
my leg is quite numbed, at present. That is right.

"Put another bandage on, so as to hold the ramrod in its place. Now
fetch a flannel shirt from my valise, fold it up so as to make a
pad that will go over the wound, and bandage it there firmly.

"Give me another drink, for I feel faint."

When all was done, he said:

"Put my valise under my head, and throw my cloak over me. Thank
you, I shall do very well now. Go forward and join the regiment.

"I am done for, this time," he thought to himself, when the men
left him. "Still, I may pull through. There are many who have had a
leg shot off and recovered, and there is no reason why I should not
do so. There has not been any great loss of blood. I suppose that
something has been smashed up, so that it cannot bleed.

"Ah, here comes the doctor!"

The doctor was one of several medical students who had enlisted in
the regiment, fighting and drilling with the rest but, when
occasion offered, acting as surgeons.

"I have just heard the news, Colonel. The regiment is heartbroken
but, in their fury, they went at the French facing them and
scattered them like sheep. Canovas, who told me, said that you were
not bleeding much, and that he and the others had bandaged you up
according to your instructions.

"Let me see. It could not have been better," he said.

He felt Terence's pulse.

"Wonderfully