g.

I saw and heard no more; my head swam; a murmuring filled my ears, I
thought trees were men, and an intolerable thirst burned my lips.

For a long while past, many in the wagons had been shrieking, calling
upon their mothers, trying to rise and fling themselves upon the road.
I know not whether I did the same; but I awoke as from a horrible
dream, as two men seized me, each by a leg, placing their arms under my
body, and carried me through a dark square. The sky seemed covered
with stars, and innumerable lights shone from an immense edifice before
us. It was the hospital of the market-place at Leipzig.

The two men who were carrying me ascended a spiral stairway which led
to an immense hall where beds were laid together in three lines, so
close that they touched each other. On one of these beds I was placed,
in the midst of oaths, cries for pity, and muttered complaints from
hundreds of fever-stricken wounded. The windows were open, and the
flames of the lanterns flickered in the gusts of wind. Surgeons,
assistants, and nurses with great aprons tied beneath their arms, came
and went, while the groans from the halls below, and the rolling of
ambulances, cracking of whips and neighing of horses without, seemed to
pierce my very brain. While they were undressing me, they handled me
roughly, and my wound pained me so horribly that I could not avoid
shrieking. A surgeon came up at once, and scolded them for not being
more careful. That is all I remember that night; for I became
delirious, and raved constantly of Catharine, Monsieur Goulden, and
Aunt Gredel, as my neighbor, an old artilleryman, whom my cries
prevented from sleeping, afterward told me. I awoke the next morning
at about eight o'clock, at the first roll of the drum, and saw the hall
better, and then learned that I had the bone of my left shoulder
broken. A dozen surgeons were around me; one of them, a stout, dark
man, whom they called Monsieur the Baron, was opening my bandages,
while an assistant at the foot of the bed held a basin of warm water.
The baron examined my wound; all the others bent forward to hear what
he might say. He spoke a few moments, but all that I could understand
was, that the ball had struck from below, breaking the bone and passing
out behind. I saw that he knew his business well, for the Prussians
had fired from below, over the garden wall, so that the ball must have
ranged upward. He washed the wound himself, and with