The worthy surgeon's left arm was bound round with a blood-stained handkerchief.
"Oh, that's nothing. When I was stooping down and 'mooling' round the bush, a sentry hailed me. I didn't know he was crying to me, and took no heed, till bang went his rifle, and ower I went on my hinder en'. I wouldn't have cared for the skin wound, Jack; but, man, the dashed bullet has torn the sleeve of my best coat! But come on; the specimens are cheap at any price, and in Edinburgh Museum—Listen! wasn't that a big gun?"
Yes, a big gun it was; and Soimonoff was at it hammer and tongs.
"Come on, Jack, come on," cried Reikie; "it's quarters, I suppose. And take my advice, just ram a biscuit in your pocket; you may come over a hungry hillock before darkening; but—there it goes again. Why, old General Soonenough, or whatever his stupid name is, must be jumbled in his judgment to begin fighting before decent folk have their breakfast.—Ah! here you come with my sword, Paddy. Look, lad, look; this is a jelly-jar. Are you listening?"
"Troth am I, sorr. A jaily-jar, ye said."
"Yes; and it contains beautiful beetles all alive."
"All alive, sorr."
"Burial beetles, so you must keep them safe, and not break the paper; for if they swarm out in your pocket, Paddy, why, they'll bury you alive."
"All right, sorr; I'll take 'em, and if one of my mates is killed, I'll give 'em to him. Sure, sorr, it won't matter much if a dead man is buried aloive. But the grace o' God be about us, sorr, on this raw, misty morning."
Soimonoff—or Soonenough, as Dr. Reikie called him—with 300 skirmishers in front, came on in a line of 6,000 men, supported by 3,000. These covered his batteries of twenty guns brought from the great fortress, and they were soon posted on Shell Hill and adjoining buttresses. It was these large batteries that opened fire about seven in the morning, their guns reverberating from hill to hill. The general's lighter guns and 9,000 men came on behind his first advance, which now began to descend from the higher ground.