u must let me pay
you for what you do for me.

"I am afraid I am going to have fever. I want your husband to go
into Orleans. The Prussians went in yesterday, you say; and so your
husband will not have to cross any outposts to get there. There is
an English ambulance there. I will write a line in pencil; and I am
sure they will give him some fever medicine, and anything else I
may require. Please feel in the breast pocket of my coat; you will
find a pocket book, with a pencil in it."

The woman did as he told her; and Ralph, with a great effort,
wrote:

"I am an Englishman, though a captain in the French service. I am
wounded with a saber, in the head; and am sheltered in a loft.
Inflammation has set in and, I fear, fever. I am obliged, indeed,
to make a great effort to master it sufficiently to write this.
Please send some fever medicine, by the bearer, and some arrowroot.
A lemon or two would be a great blessing.

"Ralph Barclay."

He then tore out the leaf, folded, and directed it to the head of
the English ambulance, Orleans.

"How is he to know the English ambulance?"

"It has a red cross on a white ground, as all the others have; and
an English flag--that is, a flag with red and white stripes going
from corner to corner, and crossing each other in the middle. But
anyone will tell him."

"I am sure he will set out at once," the woman said, and left the
loft.

In ten minutes she returned.

"He has started," she said, "but not to Orleans. My husband,
directly I gave him the message, said that he had heard that there
was an English ambulance at Terminiers, attending to the wounded
picked up on the battlefield. It is only five miles from here."

"Thank God for that," Ralph said.

Three hours later the farmer returned, with a bottle of medicine,
some arrowroot, lemons, a bottle of wine, some Liebig's essence of
meat--for making broth--and a message that the English surgeon
would ride over, as soon as he could get away. The farmer had given
him detailed instructions for finding the house; but was afraid of
stopping to act as his guide as, had he been seen walking by the
side of the surgeon's horse, the suspicions of any German they
might encounter would be at once excited.

The surgeon arrived an hour later, and was at once taken to Ralph's
bedside. Ralph, however, could not speak to, or even recognize the
presence of his countryman; for he was in a high state of fever.
The surgeon examined his wound