On seeing my open eyes, he placed himself at attention, made a rigid military salute, and said with all seriousness, "I am sorry to report, Captain Botskay, that the Russian officer left in my charge has been rescued by his friends."
At first I stared hard at him without understanding, then I broke into a hearty laugh that must have done me a world of good.
"Hang the Russian officer!" I exclaimed; "tell me where I am and how I came here."
"A few miles from Debreczin," Sándor answered gravely. "I found you in the town light-headed, charging a Russian battery that wasn't there."
"Where's our army?"
Sándor puckered his lips and blew; he could not have given a more significant answer.
"Then it's all over?"
"Thereabout, unless Dembinski can reach Arad. Bern's troops have been broken into little bits at Hermanstadt, and Dembinski has been chased out of Szegedin."
I groaned at this, and closed my eyes.
"General Klapka has done well, though," Mecsey continued in his stolid way.