the only brigade left standing, and had set our
teeth with the intention of selling our lives as dearly as we could.

At that time it was between four and five in the afternoon, and we had
had nothing to eat, the most of us, since the night before, and were
soaked with rain into the bargain. It had drizzled off and on all day,
but for the last few hours we had not had a thought to spare either upon
the weather or our hunger. Now we began to look round and tighten our
waist-belts, and ask who was hit and who was spared. I was glad to see
Jim, with his face all blackened with powder, standing on my right rear,
leaning on his firelock. He saw me looking at him, and shouted out to
know if I were hurt.

"All right, Jim," I answered.

"I fear I'm here on a wild-goose chase," said he gloomily, "but it's not
over yet. By God, I'll have him, or he'll have me!"

He had brooded so much on his wrong, had poor Jim, that I really believe
that it had turned his head; for he had a glare in his eyes as he spoke
that was hardly human. He was always a man that took even a little
thing to heart, and since Edie had left him I am sure that he was no
longer his own master.

It was at this time of the fight that we saw two single fights, which
they tell me were common enough in the battles of old, before men were
trained in masses. As we lay in the hollow two horsemen came spurring
along the ridge right in front of us, riding as hard as hoof could
rattle. The first was an English dragoon, his face right down on his
horse's mane, with a French cuirassier, an old, grey-headed fellow,
thundering behind him, on a big black mare. Our chaps set up a hooting
as they came flying on, for it seemed shame to see an Englishman run
like that; but as they swept across our front we saw where the trouble
lay. The dragoon had dropped his sword, and was unarmed, while the
other was pressing him so close that he could not get a weapon.
At last, stung maybe by our hooting, he made up his mind to chance it.
His eye fell on a lance beside a dead Frenchman, so he swerved his horse
to let the other pass, and hopping off cleverly enough, he gripped hold
of it. But the other was too tricky for him, and was on him like a
shot. The dragoon thrust up with the lance, but the other turned it,
and sliced him through the shoulder-blade. It was all done in an
instant, and the Frenchman cantering his horse up the brae, showing his
teeth at us over his shoulde