"Don't trouble yourself about that; they will wake, of that there is no doubt, but not within six hours at least."
"How the devil can you tell that?"
"Because I took upon myself to send them to sleep; that is to say, at their supper I served them with a decoction of opium, which brought them down like lumps of lead, and they have all been snoring ever since like so many forge bellows."
"Oh, that is capital!" said the general.
"Is it not?" the doctor observed, modestly. "By Galen, I was determined to repair the mischief I had done you by my negligence! I am not a soldier, I am but a poor physician; I have made use of my proper weapons; you see that in certain cases they are as good as others."
"They are a hundred times better! Doctor, you are a noble fellow!"
"Well, come, let us lose no time."
"That is true, let us be gone; but the captain, what have you done with him?"
"Oh, as to him, the devil only knows where he is. He left us after dinner without saying anything to anybody; but I have a shrewd suspicion I know where he is gone, and am much mistaken if we do not see him presently."
"All, then, is for the best; lead on."