"What is the matter with you, conscript?"
"A ball in the shoulder, mon sergeant."
"In the shoulder! That is better than one through the body. You will get over it."
And after a moment's thought he continued:
"Fear nothing. You will see home again!"
I thought that he pitied my youth and wished to console me; but my chest seemed crushed, and I could not hope.
The sergeant said no more, only from time to time he raised his head to see if our columns were coming. He swore between his teeth and ended by falling at length upon the ground, saying:
"My business is done! The villain has finished me at last!"
He gazed at the hedge opposite, where a Prussian grenadier was stretched, cold and stiff, the old sergeant's bayonet yet in his body.