sastrously eventful day, in the shape of dead and wounded men, the
former lying stark and cold in the light of the moon, some of them with
limbs disposed as though they merely slumbered, while the contorted
bodies of others showed that they had passed away in the throes of
mortal agony; some with eyes decently closed, others with their
sightless eyeballs upturned until only the whites were visible: while
from the lips of the wounded there issued one low, continuous moan of:
"Water--water! For the love of God, water!" It was a pitiable sight
beyond all human power of description, and as Jack looked round him and
beheld those units of slain and tortured humanity a great and righteous
anger took possession of him against the arrogant Power that had been
the cause of all this anguish and misery--to say nothing of what was
enacting elsewhere--rather than surrender its grip upon the fair island
that it had neither the will nor the ability to wisely govern--the Power
that had deliberately entered upon a vindictive war against those whom
it had goaded to rebellion.

It was of course quite impossible for him, unaided, to ameliorate
appreciably a hundredth part of the physical anguish of the men who lay
there writhing and groaning on the sodden ground; but there was one poor
wretch who managed to attract his attention--a Spanish soldier who, the
lower part of his body paralysed, supported himself upon one hand while
he mutely pointed with the other to his open mouth and protruding
tongue, and who seemed to be the very living embodiment of torturing
thirst. The mute appeal in this poor creature's eyes was so movingly
eloquent that the young Englishman simply could not pass on and
callously leave him in his torment. He therefore stooped and, laying
the man's arms over his shoulders, lifted the poor fellow on to his back
and carried him a little way to where a depression in the ground had
been converted by the rain into a pool some three or four yards in
diameter, from which several wounded men were already slaking their
fiery thirst; and there he laid him down within reach of the precious
liquid, and stood for a moment to watch the poor creature suck down
great draughts of the thick, muddy water!

There were scores of other unfortunates in sight whose sufferings were
probably as acute as those of the poor wretch whom Jack had just helped,
and who had an equally strong claim upon his compassion, but stern
necessity demanded tha