ow if there were no hope of saving the man he had
to thank for such a vigorous attack. He sent two surgeons to identify me
and bring me into Hospital, saying, perhaps too carelessly, for he
was very busy, 'Go and see whether by any chance poor Chabert is still
alive.' These rascally saw-bones, who had just seen me lying under
the hoofs of the horses of two regiments, no doubt did not trouble
themselves to feel my pulse, and reported that I was quite dead. The
certificate of death was probably made out in accordance with the rules
of military jurisprudence."

As he heard his visitor express himself with complete lucidity, and
relate a story so probable though so strange, the young lawyer ceased
fingering the papers, rested his left elbow on the table, and with his
head on his hand looked steadily at the Colonel.

"Do you know, monsieur, that I am lawyer to the Countess Ferraud," he
said, interrupting the speaker, "Colonel Chabert's widow?"

"My wife--yes monsieur. Therefore, after a hundred fruitless attempts to
interest lawyers, who have all thought me mad, I made up my mind to come
to you. I will tell you of my misfortunes afterwards; for the present,
allow me to prove the facts, explaining rather how things must have
fallen out rather than how they did occur. Certain circumstances, known,
I suppose to no one but the Almighty, compel me to speak of some things
as hypothetical. The wounds I had received must presumably have produced
tetanus, or have thrown me into a state analogous to that of a disease
called, I believe, catalepsy. Otherwise how is it conceivable that I
should have been stripped, as is the custom in time of the war, and
thrown into the common grave by the men ordered to bury the dead?

"Allow me here to refer to a detail of which I could know nothing till
after the event, which, after all, I must speak of as my death. At
Stuttgart, in 1814, I met an old quartermaster of my regiment. This dear
fellow, the only man who chose to recognize me, and of whom I will tell
you more later, explained the marvel of my preservation, by telling me
that my horse was shot in the flank at the moment when I was wounded.
Man and beast went down together, like a monk cut out of card-paper. As
I fell, to the right or to the left, I was no doubt covered by the body
of my horse, which protected me from being trampled to death or hit by a
ball.

"When I came to myself, monsieur, I was in a position and an atmosphere
of whi