attempt to carry their positions; but then, as they turned to run and
the Hanoverians pressed on in pursuit, he felt suddenly hit somewhere in
the breast. A spasm of pain shivered through him as the missile seemed
to rend its way through his vitals; and then, throwing up his arms, he
fell across the corpse of a soldier who must have been shot almost
immediately before him, for the body was quite warm to the touch.

How he was hurt he could not tell; he only knew that he was unable to
stir, and that each breath of air he drew came fainter and fainter, as
if it were his last.

He heard, from the retreating tramp of footsteps and distant shouts,
that his regiment had moved on after the enemy; but, as he lay on his
back, he could not see anything save the sky, while each moment some
stray shot whistled by in the air or threw up earth over him,
threatening to give him his finishing blow should the wound he had
received not be sufficient to settle him.

Then, he felt thirsty, and longed to cry out for help; but, no sound
came from his lips, while the exertion to speak caused such intolerable
agony that he wished he could die at once and be put out of his misery.
When charging the French battalion, he recollected putting his foot on
the dead face of some victim of the fight, and he could recall the
thrill of horror that passed through him as he had done this
inadvertently; now, each instant he expected, too, to be trampled on in
the same manner.

Ha! He could distinguish footsteps pressing the ground near. "Oh,
mother!" he thought, "the end is coming now, for the fight must be
drawing near again. I wish a shell or bullet would settle the matter!"

But the footsteps he imagined to be the tramp of marching men--on
account of his ear being so close to the ground and thus, of course,
magnifying the sound--were only those of the faithful Gelert, who with
the instinct of a well-trained retriever was searching for his new-found
friend. He had tracked his path over the valley from the advanced post
which the regiment had occupied in the morning, and where the dog had
been kept by Fritz to watch his camp equipments until he should return.
Gelert evidently considered that he had waited long enough for duty's
sake; and, that, as his adopted master did not come to fetch him, he
ought to start to seek for him instead, one good turn deserving another!

At the moment, therefore, when Fritz expected to have the remaining
breath tr