"There are the men at the stables. It is at the back of the house, three or four hundred yards away."
"Well, take one of the other women with you, and go and rouse them. Tell them to dress and come here, at once."
He now went down to the gate, undid the fastening, and then led his horse up to the house. In a few minutes the stablemen arrived. He ordered them to carry the bodies of the six marauders out, and lay them in front of the house. When they had done so, they were to take those of the servants and place them in an outhouse. Then he went upstairs again.
"The countess has recovered, sir," one of the women said.
"Tell her that I will send one of the army surgeons down, at once. But first, bandage my arm. It is but a flesh wound, I know; but I am feeling faint, and am sure that it is keeping on bleeding.
"Here, my girl," he said to the one who had before assisted, "I can trust to you not to faint."
With her assistance he took off his coat, the arm of which was saturated with blood.
"You had better cut off the sleeve of the shirt," he said.
This was done, and the nature of the wound was seen. A ball had ploughed through the flesh three inches below the shoulder, inflicting a gaping but not serious wound.
"It is lucky that it was not the inside of the arm," he said to the girl, as she bandaged it up; "for had it been, I should have bled to death in a very few minutes.