“Poor father!” said Blanche.

“This time, happily, nothing more dangerous ensued thanks to Djalma!  You see, Dagobert,” added Rose, “that I remember the name.”  And she continued to read,

“The English thought—­and a very flattering opinion it was—­that, if they could kill me, they would make short work of the prince’s army.  So a Sepoy officer, with five or six irregulars—­cowardly, ferocious plunderers—­seeing me roll down the ravine, threw themselves into it to despatch me.  Surrounded by fire and smoke, and carried away by their ardor, our mountaineers had not seen me fall; but Djalma never left me.  He leaped into the ravine to my assistance, and his cool intrepidity saved my life.  He had held the fire of his double-barrelled carbine; with one load, he killed the officer on the spot; with the other he broke the arm of an irregular, who had already pierced my left hand with his bayonet.  But do not be alarmed, dear Eva; it is nothing—­only a scratch.”

“Wounded—­again wounded—­alas!” cried Blanche, clasping her hands together, and interrupting her sister.

“Take courage!” said Dagobert:  “I dare say it was only a scratch, as the general calls it.  Formerly, he used to call wounds, which did not disable a man from fighting, blank wounds.  There was no one like him for such sayings.”

“Djalma, seeing me wounded,” resumed Rose, wiping her eyes, “made use of his heavy carbine as a club, and drove back the soldiers.  At that instant, I perceived a new assailant, who, sheltered behind a clump of bamboos which commanded the ravine, slowly lowered his long gun, placed the barrel between two branches, and took deliberate aim at Djalma.  Before my shouts could apprise him of his danger, the brave youth had received a ball in his breast.  Feeling himself hit, he fell bark involuntarily two paces, and dropped upon one knee:  but he still remained firm, endeavoring to cover me with his body.  You may conceive my rage and despair, whilst all my efforts to disengage myself were paralyzed by the excruciating pain in my thigh.  Powerless and disarmed, I witnessed for some moments this unequal struggle.

“Djalma was losing blood rapidly; his strength of arm began to fail him; already one of the irregulars, inciting his comrades with his voice, drew from his belt a huge, heavy kind of bill-hook, when a dozen of our mountaineers made their appearance, borne towards the spot by the irresistible current of the battle.  Djalma was rescued in his turn, I was released, and, in a quarter of an hour, I was able to mount a horse.  The fortune of the day is ours, though with severe loss; but the fires of the English camp are still visible, and to-morrow the conflict will be decisive.  Thus, my beloved Eva, I owe my life to this youth.  Happily, his wound occasions us no uneasiness; the ball only glanced along the ribs in a slanting direction.”

“The brave boy might have said:  “‘A blank wound,’ like the general,” observed Dagobert.