r hundred men, but I turned two of
the guns against them. My men fought well, and we repulsed them with a
loss of fully a hundred men."

"Bravo, sir, bravo! I shall not fail to mention the service that you
have rendered in my report of the affair. Have you lost any men?"

"No, sir; they lay down until the enemy were within twenty paces of us,
and their volleys and the two cannon created such a confusion among the
Spaniards that when we went at them with the bayonet they fled at once,
and I have not a single man killed, and only two or three slightly
wounded."

"We have only lost twenty," the general said, "and most of those were
killed while serving the guns. That was a small price indeed to pay for
our magnificent success."

CHAPTER VI: A CHANGE OF SCENE

Hector gained great credit from the report of the manner in which the
force had been enabled to draw off without loss from the enemy's guns,
owing to his forethought in bringing with him the means of spiking them,
and also for his success in checking the advance of the enemy along the
ramparts.

"You see, messieurs," Turenne said to the members of his staff, who,
with the exception of Hector, were together on the day after his return
to Susa, "how important it is for officers, before setting out on an
expedition, to think seriously over every contingency that may happen.
Now the vast proportion of officers consider that all the thinking has
to be done by the general, and that they only have to obey orders. No
doubt that is essential, but there may be numerous little matters in
which an officer may render great service. This young captain of ours
did not content himself with leading the company to which I appointed
him through the gateway. Before leaving Susa he must have thought over
every incident likely to occur. As the leading company he would know
that it would be his business to clear the ramparts, to check any
parties of the enemy coming along that way, and it would be only natural
for him to determine to use the enemy's cannon to keep them at bay.

"This would probably have occurred to most officers placed as he was.
But he did not stop there--he must have thought over the events that
would probably follow the entry. He knew, of course, that our feint
at the other end of the town would draw off the greater portion of the
garrison, but would be sure also that as soon as the attack began, and
it became evident that our real object was to revictual t