hecked himself.

'Well?'

'It's not for me to give an opinion, sir, unless asked for it.'

'I ask for it, then--your plain opinion, as a soldier.'

'An officer's an officer--that's my opinion. There's good and bad,
to be sure; but an officer like the captain here, that the men can
trust, is harder spared than any sergeant: let alone that you can
easily spread officers too thick--even good ones, and even in a
forlorn hope.'

'He wants my place,' said Captain Archimbeau; 'and he salves my
feelings with a testimonial.'

'As for that, sir'--the sergeant conceded a grin--'I reckon you won't
be far behind us when the trouble begins. And if the major wants a
good man from B Company, you'll agree with me, sir, that yonder he
goes.' And Sergeant Wilkes jerked a thumb after the tall young
corporal, a moment before the sandhills hid his retreating figure.

CHAPTER II.

The assault had been a muddle from the start.

To begin with, after being ordered for one day (July 23rd) it had
been deferred to the next; on reasonable grounds, indeed, for the
town immediately behind the great breach was burning like a furnace;
but it gave the troops an uneasy feeling that their leaders were
distracted in counsel. Nor, divided by the river, did the artillery
and the stormers work upon a mutual understanding. The heavy cannon,
after a short experiment to the left of the great breach, had shifted
their fire to the right of it, and had succeeded in knocking a
practicable hole in it before dusk. But either this change of plan
had not been reported to the trenches, or the officer directing the
assault inexplicably failed to adapt his dispositions to it.
The troops for the great breach were filed out ahead of the 38th,
which had farther to go.

Worst of all, they were set in motion an hour before dawn, although
Wellington had left orders that fair daylight should be waited for,
and the artillery-men across the Urumea were still plying their guns
on the sea-wall, to dissuade the besieged from repairing it in the
darkness. To be sure a signal for the assault--the firing of a mine
against the hornwork--had been concerted, and was duly given; but in
the din and the darkness it was either not heard or not understood.

Thus it happened that the forlorn hope and the supporting companies
of the Royals had no sooner cleared the trenches than their ranks
shook under a fire of grape, and from our own guns. There was no
cure but to das