knot.
But he was too late to take his messmate's hand in his, and say
_farewell_, if that had been his intention, for Lieutenant Leigh had
fallen back; and that senseless figure by his side was to all appearance
as dead, when, with a quivering lip, Captain Dyer gently lifted her, and
bore her to where, half stupefied, Mrs Colonel Maine was sitting.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

I got rather confused, and am to this day, about how the time went;
things that only took a few minutes seeming to be hours in happening,
and what really did take a long time gliding away as if by magic. I
think I was very often in a half-delirious state; but I can well
remember what was the cause of the silence above.

Captain Dyer was the first to see, and taking a rifle in his hand, he
whispered an order or two; and then he, with two more, rushed into the
passage, and got the door drawn towards us, for it opened outwards; but
in so doing, he slipped on the floor, and fell with a bayonet-thrust
through his shoulder, when, with a yell of rage--it was no cheer this
time--our men dashed forward, and dragged him in; the door was pulled
to, and held close; and then those poor wounded fellows--heroes I call
'em--stood angrily muttering.

I think I got more excited over that scene than over any part of the
straggle, and all because I was lying there helpless; but it was of no
use to fret, though I lay there with the weak tears running down my
cheeks, as that brave man was brought down, and laid near the grating,
with Mother Bantem at work directly to tear off his coat, and begin to
bandage, as if she had been brought up in a hospital.

The door was forsaken, for there was a new guard there, that no one
would try to pass, for the silence was explained to us all first, there
was a loud yelling and shrieking outside; and then there was a little
thin blue wreath of smoke beginning to curl under the door, crawling
along the top step, and collecting like so much blue water, to spread
very slowly; for the fiends had been carrying out their wounded and
dead, and were now going to burn us where we lay.

I can recollect all that; for now a maddening sense of horror seemed to
come upon me, to think that those few poor souls left were to be slain
in such a barbarous way, after all the gallant struggle for life; but
what surprised me was the calm, quiet way in which all seemed to take
it.

Once, indeed, the men had a talk together, and asked the w