left. Order the
franc tireurs to retreat along the hillside and, when they get to
the end of the gorge, to form in the plain, and fall back to the
first village.

"You are wounded, Barclay. Not seriously, I hope?" he said, kindly,
as the officers hurried away on their respective missions.

"A splinter of a shell, sir," Ralph said, faintly. "I don't think
it has touched the bone, but it has cut the flesh badly."

Ralph was just able to say this, when his head swam; and he would
have fallen, had not Percy caught him in his arms, with a little
cry.

"He has only fainted from loss of blood," the general said. "Two or
three handkerchiefs, gentlemen.

"Now, major, bind them round his arm.

"Now take off his sash, and bind it as tightly as you can, over
them. That's right.

"Now carry him down the rocks, to the horses. We have no time to
lose."

Two of the officers at once put their arms under Ralph's shoulders,
while Percy took his feet; and they hastened down to the horses. As
they did so, Ralph opened his eyes.

"I am all right, now," he said, faintly.

"Lie quiet," the major said, kindly. "It is only loss of blood.
There is no real harm done.

"There, here are the horses."

Ralph was placed, sitting, on the ground; a little brandy and water
was given to him and, as the blood was oozing but slowly through
the bandage, he felt sufficiently restored to sit on his horse.

"Doyle, you go with Lieutenant Barclay," the colonel of the staff
said. "Ride slowly, and keep close beside him; so as to catch him,
if you see him totter. You will find the surgeons ready at the
general's quarters.

"Halt, stand aside for a moment. Here comes the artillery."

"Well done, lads, well done!" the general said, as the diminished
battery rattled past, at full gallop.

Then he himself, with his staff, put spurs to his horse and went
off at full speed; while Tim followed at a walk, riding by the side
of Ralph. The flow of blood had now stopped, and Ralph was able to
sit his horse until he reached the house which had served as the
general's headquarters, in the morning. Here one of the staff
surgeons had fitted up a temporary ambulance; and Ralph's bandages
were soon taken off, and his coat removed. Tim turned sick at the
sight of the ugly gash in his young master's arm, and was obliged
to go out into the air.

The artillery were already at work, and their fire told that the
franc tireurs had retired from the gorge, and that