The group assembled in the
room were in fearful expectation of the arrival of the surgeons, in
pursuit of whom messengers had been sent both to the barracks in F---- and
to the town itself. Sir Edward sat by the side of the sufferer, holding
one of his hands in his own, now turning his tearful eyes on that daughter
who had so lately been rescued as it were from the certainty of death, in
mute gratitude and thanksgiving; and now dwelling on the countenance of
him, who, by bravely interposing his bosom to the blow, had incurred in
his own person the imminent danger of a similar fate, with a painful sense
of his perilous situation, and devout and earnest prayers for his safety.
Emily was with her father, as with the rest of his family, a decided
favorite; and no reward would have been sufficient, no gratitude lively
enough, in the estimation of the baronet, to compensate the protector of
such a child. She sat between her mother and Jane, with a hand held by
each, pale and oppressed with a load of gratitude, of thanksgiving, of
woe, that almost bowed her to the earth. Lady Moseley and Jane were both
sensibly touched with the deliverance of Emily, and manifested the
interest they took in her by the tenderest caresses, while Mrs. Wilson sat
calmly collected within herself, occasionally giving those few directions
which were necessary under the circumstances, and offering up her silent
petitions in behalf of the sufferer. John had taken horse immediately for
F----, and Jarvis had volunteered to go to the rectory and Bolton. Denbigh
inquired frequently and with much anxiety for Dr. Ives; but the rector was
absent from home on a visit to a sick parishioner, and it was late in the
evening before he arrived. Within three hours of the accident, however,
Dr. Black, the surgeon of the ----th, reached the hall, and immediately
proceeded to examine the wound. The ball had penetrated the right breast,
and gone directly through the body; it was extracted with very little
difficulty, and his attendant acquainted the anxious friends of Denbigh
that the heart certainly, and he hoped the lungs, had escaped uninjured.
The ball was a very small one, and the principal danger to be apprehended
was from fever: he had taken the usual precautions against that, and
should it not set in with a violence greater than he apprehended at
present, the patient might be abroad within the month.

"But," continued the surgeon, with the hardened indifference of h