’Is there;—­is there nothing, doctor—­for mercy’s sake, think—­doctor, do—­I conjure you—­pray think—­there must be something’—­urged Puddock, imploringly.

’Ay, that’s the way, Sir, fellows quacking themselves and one another; when they get frightened, and with good reason, come to us and expect miracles; but as in this case, the quantity was not very much, ’tis not, you see, overpowering, and he may do if he takes what I’ll send him.’

Puddock was already at his bedside, shaking his hand hysterically, and tumbling his words out one over the other—­

’You’re thafe, my dear Thir—­dum thpiro thpero—­he thayth—­Dr. Thturk—­he can thave you, my dear Thir—­my dear lieutenant—­my dear O’Flaherty—­he can thave you, Thir—­thafe and thound, Thir.’

O’Flaherty, who had turned his face to the wall in the bitterness of his situation—­for like some other men, he had the intensest horror of death when he came peaceably to his bedside, though ready enough to meet him with a ‘hurrah!’ and a wave of his rapier, if he arrived at a moment’s notice, with due dash and eclat—­sat up like a shot, and gaping upon Puddock for a few seconds, relieved himself with a long sigh, a devotional upward roll of the eyes, and some muttered words, of which the little ensign heard only ‘blessing,’ very fervently, and ’catch me again,’ and ‘divil bellows it;’ and forthwith out came one of the fireworker’s long shanks, and O’Flaherty insisted on dressing, shaving, and otherwise preparing as a gentleman and an officer, with great gaiety of heart, to meet his fate on the Fifteen Acres.

In due time arrived the antidote.  It was enclosed in a gallipot, and was what I believe they called an electuary.  I don’t know whether it is an obsolete abomination now, but it looked like brick-dust and treacle, and what it was made of even Puddock could not divine.  O’Flaherty, that great Hibernian athlete, unconsciously winced and shuddered like a child at sight of it.  Puddock stirred it with the tip of a tea-spoon, and looked into it with inquisitive disgust, and seemed to smell it from a distance, lost for a minute in inward conjecture, and then with a slight bow, pushed it ceremoniously toward his brother in arms.

‘There is not much the matter with me now—­I feel well enough,’ said O’Flaherty, mildly, and eyeing the mixture askance; and after a little while he looked at Puddock.  That disciplinarian understood the look, and said, peremptorily, shaking up his little powdered head, and lisping vehemently—­

’Lieutenant O’Flaherty, Sir!  I insist on your instantly taking that physic.  How you may feel, Sir, has nothing to do with it.  If you hesitate, I withdraw my sanction to your going to the field, Sir.  There’s no—­there can be—­no earthly excuse but a—­a miserable objection to a—­swallowing a—­recipe, Sir—­that isn’t—­that is may be—­not intended to please the palate, but to save your life, Sir,—­remember.  Sir, you’ve swallowed a—­you—­you require, Sir—­you don’t think I fear to say it, Sir!—­you have swallowed that you ought not to have swallowed, and don’t, Sir—­don’t—­for both our sakes—­for Heaven’s sake—­I implore—­and insist—­don’t trifle, Sir.’