FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52  
53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   >>   >|  
y?" "Yes; give me another drink. Ah!" cried he, in an excited tone, "they can't stand before the cuirassiers of the Guard. _Sacrebleu!_ how proud the Petit Caporal will be of this day!" Then, dropping his voice, he muttered, "What care I who's proud? I have my billet, and must be going." "Not so, _mon enfant_; thou'lt have the cross for thy day's work. He knows thee well; I saw him smile to-day when thou madest the salute in passing." "Didst thou that?" said the wounded man, with eagerness; "did he smile? Ah, villain! how you can allure men to shed their heart's blood by a smile! He knows me! That he ought, and, if he but knew how I lay here now, he 'd send the best surgeon of his staff to look after me." "That he would, and that he will; courage, and cheer up." "No, no; I don't care for it now. I'll never go back to the regiment again; I could n't do it!" As he spoke the last words his voice became fainter and fainter, and at last was lost in a hiccup; partly, as it seemed, from emotion, and partly from bodily suffering. "_Qui vive?_" cried his companion, as the clash of my sabre announced my approach. "An officer of the Eighth Hussars," said I, in a low voice, fearing to disturb the wounded man, as he lay with his head sunk on his knees. "Too late, Comrade! too late," said he, in a stifled tone; "the order of route has come. I must away." "A brave cuirassier of the Guard should never say so while he has a chance left to serve his Emperor in another field of battle." "Vive l'Empereur! vive l'Empereur!" shouted he, madly, as he lifted his helmet and tried to wave it above his head. But the exertion brought on a violent fit of coughing, which choked his utterance, while a torrent of red blood gushed from his mouth, and deluged his neck and chest. "Ah, _mon Dieu!_ that cry has been his death," said the other, wringing his hands in utter misery. "Where is he wounded?" said I, kneeling down beside the sick man, who now lay, half on his face, upon the grass. "In the chest, through the lung," whispered the other. "He doesn't know the doctor saw him; it was he told me there was no hope. 'You may leave him,' said he; 'an hour or two more are all that 's left him;' as if I could leave a comrade we all loved. My poor fellow, it is a sad day for the old Fourth when thou art taken from them!" "Ha! was he of the Fourth, then?" said I, remembering the regiment. "Yes, _parbleu!_ and though but a cor
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52  
53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

wounded

 

fainter

 

Empereur

 

partly

 

regiment

 

Fourth

 

torrent

 

gushed

 

choked

 

utterance


deluged
 

shouted

 

Emperor

 
battle
 

chance

 

cuirassier

 

exertion

 

brought

 
violent
 

lifted


helmet

 

coughing

 
comrade
 

fellow

 

remembering

 
parbleu
 

misery

 

kneeling

 

wringing

 

whispered


doctor
 

eagerness

 
villain
 
passing
 

madest

 

salute

 

allure

 

cuirassiers

 

Sacrebleu

 

excited


Caporal
 

enfant

 

billet

 

dropping

 
muttered
 

surgeon

 

approach

 

officer

 

Eighth

 
announced