The German party blustered, but the officer in command of the Guards had no hesitation in forcing them to submit. They threatened, but the fixed bayonets presented at their breasts, and the disposition shown by the sturdy Englishmen who bore them to use them on the instant that an order was given, ended in a surrender.
As the baron fell, the feeling of horror which attacked Frank passed away, and, handkerchief in hand, he sprang to his father’s side, binding it tightly round the wound, and following it up by the application of a scarf from his neck.
“Ah, Frank lad,” said Sir Robert, as if it were quite a matter of course that his son should help him; and he held up his arm, so that the wound could be bound while he spoke to Captain Murray.
“It was an accident,” he said excitedly. “I swear that I was only on my defence.”
“We saw,” said the captain quietly. “He regularly forced himself on your blade.”
“How is he, doctor?” said Sir Robert excitedly.
“Bad,” replied the surgeon, who was kneeling beside the fallen man, while his disarmed companions looked fiercely on.
“Don’t worry yourself about it, Gowan,” said one of Sir Robert’s brother-officers; “the brute fought like a savage, and tried his best to kill you.”
“I’d have given ten years of my life sooner than it should have happened.—That will do, boy.”
“Bad job, Gowan,” said the officer who had arrested them. “The colonel was very wild as soon as he knew that you had broken arrest and come to this meeting, and it will go hard with you, Murray, and you others.”