“I stood up with difficulty; a faintness overpowered me: I staggered, and would have fallen, but the sergeant supported me, while his comrade held a canteen to my mouth. It contained brandy diluted with water, and, to one parched as I was, the draught was exquisitely grateful. My deliverers appeared anxious to move off, either to obtain fresh plunder, or secure that already acquired; and which, to judge from the size of their havresacs, must have been considerable. I begged them to assist me from the field; but they declined it, alleging that they must rejoin their regiment before day-break. At this moment my eyes encountered those of the _jäger_, who lay as motionless behind the dead horse as any of the corpses that surrounded him. If I remained, (and I could not walk without support,) the chances were immense that the villain would speedily remove one who had witnessed a deed of robbery and murder, and I made a fresh appeal to my worthy countrymen: “Sergeant, I will reward you handsomely: do not desert me.” “I cannot remain longer, sir: morning is breaking, and you will soon have relief enough,” was the reply. “It will never reach me: there is one within three paces, who will not permit me to look upon another sun.” “Both soldiers started. “What do you mean?” exclaimed the sergeant eagerly. “Mark you that Prussian sharp-shooter who skulks behind the horse?” “What of him?” asked the grenadier. “Yonder dead officer supplicated assistance from that scoundrel, and he answered him with curses, and commenced plundering him directly. I saw him take a purse, and tear away his epaulette. Some other article the poor fellow feebly attempted to retain; and the villain, before my eyes, stabbed him to the heart. Hearing your approach, he hid himself behind that charger: need I add, that there he lies until you leave this spot, and that I shall most probably be his next victim?” “You shall not, by Heaven!” exclaimed the sergeant, as he drew his sword and stepped over the dead horse. The Prussian, who had no doubt watched the conference attentively, sprang upon his feet on the first movement of the grenadier; but his fate was sealed: before the sergeant’s comrade could unsheath his bayonet, the _jäger_ was cut down, and the murderer rolled in the agonies of death beside the unfortunate youth whom but a few minutes before he had so ruthlessly slaughtered. “The corpse was speedily plundered by the grenadiers, and the spoil of the rifleman, when united to their booty, made, as I suspect, a valuable addition. “The moonlight was now yielding to the grey tint of early day, and the chief cause of my apprehensions being removed by the _jäger’s_ death, I found leisure to scrutinize my deliverers.