ho was crying so bitterly that I was really obliged to
bring this fruit up to you. She said you would know who she was,
and was heartbroken that she could not be allowed to come up to
nurse you. She said that she had heard, from one of your men, of
your wound. I told her that it was quite impossible that any
civilian should enter the hospital, but said that I would take her
fruit up and, if she would come every day at five o'clock in the
afternoon, when we went off duty for an hour, I would tell her how
you were going on."

"She used to sell fruit to the prisoners here," Terence said, "and
it was entirely by her aid that I effected my escape, last year;
and she got a muleteer, to whom she is engaged, to take me down
from here to Cadiz. I bought her a present when we entered the town
and, the other day, told her I hoped to dance at her wedding before
long. However, that engagement will not come off. My dancing days
are over."

The surgeon felt his pulse.

"There is very little fever," he said. "So far you are going on
marvellously; but you must not be disappointed if you get a sharp
turn, presently. You can hardly expect to get through a wound like
this without having a touch, and perhaps a severe one, of fever."

"Is there any harm in my eating fruit?"

"I would not eat any, but you can drink some of the juice, mixed
with water. I hope we shall have everything comfortable by tonight;
of course, we are all in the rough, at present. Although many of
the doctors of the town have been helping us, I don't think there
is one medical officer in the army who has taken off his coat since
the wounded began to come in, yesterday morning."

That night Terence's wound became very painful. Inflammation,
accompanied of course with fever, set in and, for a fortnight, he
was very ill. At the end of that time matters began to mend, and
the wound soon assumed a healthy appearance. An operation had been
performed, and the projecting bone cut off.

There were dire sufferings in Salamanca. Six thousand wounded had
to be cared for, the French prisoners and their guards fed; and the
army had no organization to meet so great a strain. Numbers of
lives that might have been saved, by care and proper attention,
were lost; and the spirit of discontent and insubordination, which
had its origin in the excesses committed in the sack of the
fortresses, rapidly increased.

The news from the front, after a time, seemed more satisfactory.
Clau