forward, he made a gesture to conceal the face,
saying in French, 'Ah! Mesdames; this is no sight for you.'

Indeed the head and face were almost entirely hidden by bandages, and
it was not till Berenger had been safely deposited on a large carved
bed that the anxious relatives were permitted to perceive the number
and extent of his hurts; and truly it was only by the breath, the vital
warmth, and the heavy moans when he was disturbed, or the dressings of
the wounds were touched, that showed him still to be a living man.
There proved to be no less than four wounds--a shot through the right
shoulder, the right arm also broken with a terrible blow with a sword,
a broad gash from the left temple to the right ear, and worse than all,
_'le baiser d'Eustacie,'_ a bullet wound where the muzzle of the pistol
had absolutely been so close as to have burnt and blackened the cheek;
so that his life was, as Osbert averred, chiefly owing to the assassin's
jealousy of his personal beauty, which had directed his shot to the
cheek rather than the head; and thus, though the bullet had terribly
shattered the upper jaw and roof of the mouth, and had passed out
through the back of the head, there was a hope that it had not
penetrated the seat of life or reason. The other gash on the face was
but a sword-wound, and though frightful to look at, was unimportant,
compared with the first wound with the pistol-shot in the shoulder, with
the arm broken and further injured by having served to suspend him round
Osbert's neck; but it was altogether so appalling a sight, that it
was no wonder that Sis Marmaduke muttered low but deep curses on the
cowardly ruffians; while his wife wept in grief as violent, though more
silent, than her stepson's, and only Cecily gathered the faintest ray of
hope. The wounds had been well cared for, the arm had been set, the hair
cut away, and lint and bandages applied with a skill that surprised her,
till she remembered that Landry Osbert had been bred up in preparation
to be Berenger's valet, and thus to practise those minor arts of surgery
then required in a superior body-servant. For his part, though his eyes
looked red, and his whole person exhausted by unceasing watching, he
seemed unable to relinquish the care of his master for a moment, and
her nunnery French would not have perceived her tender touch and ready
skill. These were what made him consent to leave his post even for a
short meal, and so soon as he had e