hought
I heard the words Bregenz and Feldkirch interchanged, giving me to
surmise that they were discussing to which place they should repair.
My faint hope of returning to the former town was, however, soon
extinguished, as the corporal, turning to me, said, "Our orders are to
bring you alive to headquarters. We 'll do our best; but if, in crossing
these torrents, you prefer to be drowned, it's no fault of ours."

"Do you mean by that," cried I, "that I am to be dragged through the
water in this fashion?"

"I mean that you are to come along as best you may."

"It is all worthy of you, quite worthy!" screamed I, in a voice of
wildest rage. "You reserve all your bravery for those who cannot resist
you,--and you are right, for they are your only successes. The Turks
beat you"--here they chucked me close up, and dashed into the stream.
"The Prussians beat you!" I was now up to my waist in water. "The Swiss
beat you!" Down I went over head and ears. "The French always--thrashed
you"--down again--"at Ulm--Auster--litz--Aspern"--nearly suffocated,
I yelled out, "Wagrara!"--and down I went, never to know any further
consciousness till I felt myself lying on the soaked and muddy road,
and heard a gruff voice saying, "Come along--we don't intend to pass the
night here!"

CHAPTER XLI. THE ACT OF ACCUSATION

Benumbed, bedraggled, and bewildered, I entered Feldkirch late at night,
my wrists cut with the cords, my clothes torn by frequent falls, my
limbs aching with bruises, and my wet rags chafing my skin. No wonder
was it that I was at once consigned from the charge of a jailer to the
care of a doctor, and ere the day broke I was in a raging fever.

I would not, if I could, preserve any memory of that grievous interval.
Happily for me, no clear traces remain on my mind,--pangs of suffering
are so mingled with little details of the locality, faces, words,
ludicrous images of a wandering intellect, long hours of silent
brooding, sound of church bells, and such other tokens as cross the
lives of busy men in the daily walk of life, all came and went within my
brain, and still I lay there in fever.

In my first return of consciousness, I perceived I was the sole occupant
of a long arched gallery, with a number of beds arranged along each
side of it. In their uniform simplicity, and the severe air of the few
articles of furniture, my old experiences at once recalled the
hospital; not that I arrived at this conclusion witho