t. I shan't want anything but this lemonade; and I have no doubt I
shall go straight off to sleep again as soon as you have gone."

It was not until just one o'clock that Denis woke. He at once got up
and went to Ralph's side. The latter opened his eyes.

"How do you feel now, your honor?"

"Oh, I am getting on very well, Denis. My arm hardly hurts me at all
at present. I expect it will ache worse presently."

"I have been having a few minutes' sleep your honor. And now, if you
don't want me for a minute, I will run down and see about breakfast. I
should think it must be nearly ready."

"See about dinner, you mean, Denis. Why, it's just one o'clock."

"One o'clock! Your honor must be dreaming."

"I don't think so, Denis. There is my watch on the table."

"Why, your honor does not mean to say," Denis said in great
astonishment, "that I have been sleeping for five hours? The watch
must have gone wrong."

"The watch is right enough, Denis. I heard it strike twelve by the
church clocks before I dozed off last time. Why, the surgeons came in
at ten o'clock and gave me some lemonade."

"And me to know nothing about it! Denis Mulligan, you ought to be
ashamed of yourself--slaping like a pig in a stye, with your master
laying wounded there beside you, and no one to look after him. I just
laid down for five minutes' nap, your honor, seeing that you had gone
off into a beautiful sleep, and never dreamed of more than that."

"It was the best thing you could do, Denis. You had been twenty-four
hours on your feet, and you would have been fit for nothing if you
hadn't had a good rest. Now go downstairs and get your dinner, and
when you come back again you can bring me up a basin of broth and a
piece of bread. I begin to feel hungry; and that's a capital sign, I
believe."

When Ralph had finished his broth he said to Denis, "I shan't want
anything now for some time, Denis. You can put a glass of lemonade
within reach of my hand, and then I shall do very well for an hour or
two. I am quite sure you must be dying for a pipe; so go out and take
a turn. It will freshen you up; and you can bring me back what news
you can gather as to the losses yesterday, and whether the army
started in pursuit of the French."

It was some time before Denis would consent to leave the room; but at
last, seeing that Ralph really wished it, he went out for an hour, and
returned full of the rumors he had picked up of the terrible losses of
the