n in silence, till
at last she asked the woman if she thought the bandsmen had hurt him
when they seized him.

"No, 'twasn't the bandsmen," said the woman absently, and without
looking up; "'twas the sarjint as did it."

"What did the serjeant do to him?" asked Colonel George from the door.
"It is a shameful thing if he hurt him, for Brimacott told me that he
had begged him not to be hard on him."

But the woman gave no answer, seeming rather ashamed to have said so
much; and after another silence Lady Eleanor asked another question or
two which was answered very shortly, and said something about calling
in a doctor.

"Doctor, no!" answered the woman fiercely. "They never do nought but
bleed a man to death."

"Are you sure?" said Colonel George. "I know there were army-doctors
who used to bleed men disgracefully. You remember," he added, turning
for a moment to Lady Eleanor, "what Charlie Napier of the Fiftieth
wrote from Hythe, that the doctors thought bleeding to death the best
way of recovering sick soldiers. But I don't suppose, my good woman,
that you have ever had to do with such."

"What! not I?" said the woman scornfully, but instantly restrained
herself and stopped.

"I should give him a drop more wine from time to time, mistress," said
Colonel George, as if taking no notice of what she had said; and
hitching the reins of the horses round the poles of the hut he took a
spoon, and poured a little between the sick man's lips himself. "The
poor fellow's dreadfully weak," he went on. "Was he ever sick or hurt
as a boy, mistress? Did you ever see him taken like this before? If
you could tell us, we might know better how to treat him." And as he
asked the question he looked straight into the woman's face, very
keenly but very kindly, and she dropped her eyes with a half sigh.
"You see," he went on, "my Lady's little son came home and told us of a
coat that you had put on him, which sounded to me like a drummer's
coat; though of course as I haven't seen it I may be quite wrong; but I
was wondering if he had ever been a soldier, as I am myself, and been
wounded at some time."

"No, he wasn't never a soldier," said the woman hastily.

"Ah," said Colonel George; "it was his knowing how to drum that made me
think so. And so you had to carry the poor fellow all this way the
other day? Well, it's more than many a strong man could have done.
Many's the man I've seen break down from the weight of his pa