Instantly Madame Drucour had forced a passage through the crowd, and was at his side.
"Bring him this way," she said to those who supported him and led the horse; "he will have the best attention here."
Montcalm seemed to hear the words, and the wail of sorrow which went up from the bystanders. He roused himself, and spoke a few words, faintly and with difficulty.
"It is nothing. You must not be troubled for me, my good friends. It is as it should be--as I would have it."
Then his head drooped forward, and Madame Drucour hurried the soldiers onward to the house where she now lived; Colin running on in advance to give notice of their approach, and if possible to find Victor Arnoux, that the wounded man might receive immediate attention.
The surgeon was luckily on the spot almost at once, and directed the carrying of the Marquis into one of the lower rooms, where they laid him on a couch and brought some stimulant for him to swallow. He was now quite unconscious; and the young surgeon, after looking at the wound, bit his lip and stood in silent thought whilst the necessary things were brought to him.
"Is it dangerous?" asked Madame Drucour, in an anxious whisper, as she looked down at the well-known face.
"It is mortal!" answered Victor, in the same low tone. "He has not twelve hours of life left in him."
[Chapter 2]: Surrender.
"Is the General yet living?" asked the Abbe an hour or two later, entering the house to which he knew his friend had been carried, a look of concentrated anxiety upon his face.