After relieving this post the guard resumed their march, and passed so close to where Rene sat in the shadow of the great gun that, had the night been a shade lighter, they must have seen him.  As it was, he escaped detection, and once more breathed freely as their footsteps sounded fainter and fainter in the distance.  After a while he heard them return along the opposite side of the fort, and finally halt in front of the guard-house, when silence again reigned throughout the entire enclosure.

As Rene still sat on the gun-carriage, thinking how he might turn to account the fact of his friend Simon being on duty at the main gateway, the sound of a groan came from that direction.  As it was repeated, the lad sprang to his feet and walked quietly but rapidly towards the place whence it came.  When near the gateway he laid down his cross-bow and advanced without it, until brought to a halt by a sharp challenge in the gruff voice of old Simon.

Rene gave the countersign, and added, “It is I, Rene de Veaux, good Simon.  Hearing thy groans, I came to learn their cause.  What distresses thee so grievously?”

“Ah!  Master De Veaux,” answered the old soldier, “I fear me greatly that the fever of the bones with which so many of our men are suffering has at length laid hold on me, I have been warned for some days of its approach, and only a few hours since obtained from good Master Le Moyne physic which, if taken at the outset, prevents much pain.  I left it in the smithy near the forge, not deeming the attack so near; but the chill of the night air hath hastened it, and already am I suffering the torments of the rack.  Tell me, lad, wilt thou fetch me the phial from the smithy, that I may test the virtue of its contents?”

“Not so, good Simon,” answered Rene, whose thoughts had been busy while the old soldier told of his troubles.  “I will gladly aid thee, but am convinced that it can better be done in another way.  Go thou for the physic, for thou canst more readily place hands upon it than I, and at the same time apparel thyself in garments thicker and more suited to the chill of the night than those thou wearest.  I will stand watch until thy return, and pledge thee my word that none shall pass, or be the wiser for thy absence.”

All his soldier’s training forbade Simon to accept this offer.  To desert his post, even though he left it guarded by another, would, he knew, be considered one of the gravest military crimes.  Therefore the struggle in his mind between duty on the one side and his sufferings on the other was long and pitiful.

Finally pain conquered.  “Well, well, Master Rene,” he said, gruffly, “I must e’en take thy advice, and obtain speedy release from this pain, or else be found here dead ere the post be relieved.  Keep thou open keen eyes and ears, and I pray that no harm may come of this my first neglect of duty in all the years that I have served the King.”