"Leave me, Colonel Egerton," he said, speaking with difficulty, and
pointing in the direction of the little run of water, "assist Miss
Moseley--your hat--your hat will answer."
Accustomed to scenes of blood, and not ignorant that time and care were
the remedies to be applied to the wounded man, Egerton flew to the
stream, and returning immediately, by the help of her sister and Mrs.
Wilson, soon restored Emily to life. The ladies and John had now begun
to act. The tenderest assiduities of Jane were devoted to her sister;
while Mrs. Wilson observing her niece to be uninjured by anything but
the shock, assisted John in supporting the wounded man.
Denbigh spoke, requesting to be carried to the house; and Jarvis was
despatched for help. Within half an hour, Denbigh was placed on a couch
in the house of Sir Edward, and was quietly waiting for that
professional aid which could only decide on his probable fate. The group
assembled in the room were in fearful expectation of the arrival of the
surgeons, in pursuit of whom messengers had been sent both to the
barracks in F---- and to the town itself. Sir Edward sat by the side of
the sufferer, holding one of his hands in his own, now turning his
tearful eyes on that daughter who had so lately been rescued as it were
from the certainty of death, in mute gratitude and thanksgiving; and now
dwelling on the countenance of him, who, by bravely interposing his
bosom to the blow, had incurred in his own person the imminent danger of
a similar fate, with a painful sense of his perilous situation, and
devout and earnest prayers for his safety. Emily was with her father, as
with the rest of his family, a decided favorite; and no reward would
have been sufficient, no gratitude lively enough, in the estimation of
the baronet, to compensate the protector of such a child. She sat
between her mother and Jane, with a hand held by each, pale and
oppressed with a load of gratitude, of thanksgiving, of woe, that almost
bowed her to the earth. Lady Moseley and Jane were both sensibly touched
with the deliverance of Emily, and manifested the interest they took in
her by the tenderest caresses, while Mrs. Wilson sat calmly collected
within herself, occasionally giving those few directions which were
necessary under the circumstances, and offering up her silent petitions
in behalf of the sufferer. John had taken horse immediately for F----,
and Jarvis had volunteered to go to the rectory and Bolton. Denbigh
inquired frequently and with much anxiety for Dr. Ives; but the rector
was absent from home on a visit to a sick parishioner, and it was late
in the evening before he arrived. Within three hours of the accident,
however, Dr. Black, the surgeon of the ----th, reached the hall, and
immediately proceeded to examine the wound. The ball had penetrated the
right breast, and gone directly through the body; it was extracted with
very little difficulty, and his attendant acquainted the anxious friends
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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