The pale face of the wounded officer, his weak voice which he had yet to use cautiously, and the courteous dignity of his tone had a great effect on his hearers.  Reported outside all this did more for deepening the mystery than the vapourings of Lieut.  Feraud.  This last was greatly relieved at the issue.  He began to enjoy the state of general wonder, and was pleased to add to it by assuming an attitude of fierce discretion.

The colonel of Lieut.  D’Hubert’s regiment was a grey-haired, weather-beaten warrior, who took a simple view of his responsibilities.  “I can’t,” he said to himself, “let the best of my subalterns get damaged like this for nothing.  I must get to the bottom of this affair privately.  He must speak out if the devil were in it.  The colonel should be more than a father to these youngsters.”  And indeed he loved all his men with as much affection as a father of a large family can feel for every individual member of it.  If human beings by an oversight of Providence came into the world as mere civilians, they were born again into a regiment as infants are born into a family, and it was that military birth alone which counted.

At the sight of Lieut.  D’Hubert standing before him very bleached and hollow-eyed the heart of the old warrior felt a pang of genuine compassion.  All his affection for the regiment—­that body of men which he held in his hand to launch forward and draw back, who ministered to his pride and commanded all his thoughts—­seemed centred for a moment on the person of the most promising subaltern.  He cleared his throat in a threatening manner, and frowned terribly.  “You must understand,” he began, “that I don’t care a rap for the life of a single man in the regiment.  I would send the eight hundred and forty-three of you men and horses galloping into the pit of perdition with no more compunction than I would kill a fly!”

“Yes, Colonel.  You would be riding at our head,” said Lieut.  D’Hubert with a wan smile.

The colonel, who felt the need of being very diplomatic, fairly roared at this.  “I want you to know, Lieut.  D’Hubert, that I could stand aside and see you all riding to Hades if need be.  I am a man to do even that if the good of the service and my duty to my country required it from me.  But that’s unthinkable, so don’t you even hint at such a thing.”  He glared awfully, but his tone softened.  “There’s some milk yet about that moustache of yours, my boy.  You don’t know what a man like me is capable of.  I would hide behind a haystack if . . .  Don’t grin at me, sir!  How dare you?  If this were not a private conversation I would . . .  Look here!  I am responsible for the proper expenditure of lives under my command for the glory of our country and the honour of the regiment.  Do you understand that?  Well, then, what the devil do you mean by letting yourself be spitted like this by that fellow of the 7th Hussars?  It’s simply disgraceful!”