"trampled down and killed, just as I had begun to love
him as much as if he had been my own."

"Cheer up, old lass," said Joe, wincing as he spoke, for a bullet had
ploughed a nasty furrow in one arm; "we don't know yet that he isn't all
right. Prisoner, perhaps. Let's wait till morning, and see."

Mrs Corporal sobbed, and of course waited, with the men under arms all
night and expecting an attack.

But the night passed away without any alarm, and soon after sunrise in
the beautiful chestnut wood, about fifty of the missing crawled back
into camp, but there was no news of the Colonel, none of Dick, and poor
Mrs Corporal Beane had another terrible trouble on her mind as she
nursed and held water to her husband's feverish lips, for in the
terrible fight at the surprise brave stout-hearted Joe Beane had been
shot close to the Colonel's side, and he remembered seeing that officer
wave his sword, and hearing him cry, "Forward, my lads; this way," but
he could recollect no more.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Dick could remember every thing that took place then, though all that
had occurred before he was hurt still remained blank. He remembered the
crashing volleys fired from both sides of the gorge, and the way in
which the long line of the marching regiment faced both ways and fired
again, before making a brave charge forward, led by their officers, to
fight their way through the enemy in front, but only to be beaten back,
withered as their formation was by the terrible fire on all sides. He
remembered this, and how all of a sudden, as the mule he rode was
carried along in the crowd, and he clung tightly to the bundle with
which it was loaded, the poor beast suddenly stood still, uttered a
strange squeal, and then reared up so that Dick was nearly jerked off.
But the poor animal, which had been pierced through the lungs by a
bullet, came down again on all-fours, and then dashed off at full gallop
towards the clouds of smoke in front, bore off to the left as some
dimly-seen men stabbed at it with their bayonets, and tore on over rock
and bush, higher and higher up the side of the gorge, with Dick still
clinging tightly to the ropes of the bundle, till all at once it uttered
a shrill cry, reared up again, and then fell, throwing the boy down
among the tangled growth, rolled over, once kicked out its legs for a
few moments, and then lay perfectly still.

Dick lay as still for a few minutes, feeling too much startled to move.
T