stoutly refused to retire. The enemy's fire continued to deal havoc
amongst them; many officers and men were struck down; General Eyre
himself was wounded severely in the head.

All this time they waited anxiously for support, but none appeared. At
length, as night fell, Colonel Adams, who had succeeded Eyre in the
command, reluctantly decided to fall back.

The retreat was carried out slowly and in perfect order, without
molestation from the enemy. Now at last the wounded were removed on
stretchers as carefully and tenderly as was possible.

McKay's hurts had been seen to early in the day. He was placed as far
as possible out of fire, and his strength maintained by such
stimulants as were available.

While the excitement lasted his pluck and endurance held out. But
there was a gradual falling-off of fire as the night advanced, and the
pains of his wounds increased. He suffered terribly from the motion as
he was borne back to camp, and when at last they reached the shelter
of a hospital-tent in the Third Division camp he was in a very bad
way: fits of wild delirium alternated with death-like insensibility.

But he was once more amongst his friends. Next morning Lord Raglan,
notwithstanding his heavy cares and preoccupation, sent over to
inquire after him.

Many of the headquarter-staff came too, and Colonel Blythe was
constantly at his bedside.

On the second day the bullet was removed from the leg, and from that
moment the symptoms became more favourable. Fever abated, and the
wounds looked as though they would heal "at the first intention."

"He will do well enough now," said the doctor in charge of the case;
"but he will want careful nursing--better, I fear, than he can get in
camp."

"Why not send him on board a hospital ship? Could he bear the journey
to Balaclava?"

"Undoubtedly. I was going to suggest it."

"There is the _Burlington Castle_, his own uncle's ship: she is
now fitted up as a hospital, with nurses and every appliance. He will
soon get well on board her."

There were other and still more potent aids to convalescence on board
the _Burlington Castle_. A band of devoted female nurses tended the
sick; and amongst them, demurely clad in a black dress, her now sad
white face half hidden under an immense coif, was one who answered to
the name of Miss Hidalgo.

It was Mariquita, placed there by the kindness of the military
authorities, anxious to make all the return possible by helping in t