We heard the round far off; heard it draw slowly nearer. Last of all, it turned the corner and moved into our field of vision: two file of men and a corporal with a lantern, which he swung to and fro, so as to cast its light in the recesses of the yards and sheds. ‘Hullo!’ cried the corporal, pausing as he came by Goguelat. He stooped with his lantern. All our hearts were flying. ‘What devil’s work is this?’ he cried, and with a startling voice summoned the guard. We were all afoot upon the instant; more lanterns and soldiers crowded in front of the shed; an officer elbowed his way in. In the midst was the big naked body, soiled with blood. Some one had covered him with his blanket; but as he lay there in agony, he had partly thrown it off. ‘This is murder!’ cried the officer. ‘You wild beasts, you will hear of this to-morrow.’ As Goguelat was raised and laid upon a stretcher, he cried to us a cheerful and blasphemous farewell. CHAPTER III—MAJOR CHEVENIX COMES INTO THE STORY, AND GOGUELAT GOES OUT There was never any talk of a recovery, and no time was lost in getting the man’s deposition. He gave but the one account of it: that he had committed suicide because he was sick of seeing so many Englishmen. The doctor vowed it was impossible, the nature and direction of the wound forbidding it. Goguelat replied that he was more ingenious than the other thought for, and had propped up the weapon in the ground and fallen on the point—‘just like Nebuchadnezzar,’ he added, winking to the assistants. The doctor, who was a little, spruce, ruddy man of an impatient temper, pished and pshawed and swore over his patient. ‘Nothing to be made of him!’ he cried. ‘A perfect heathen. If we could only find the weapon!’ But the weapon had ceased to exist. A little resined twine was perhaps blowing about in the castle gutters; some bits of broken stick may have trailed in corners; and behold, in the pleasant air of the morning, a dandy prisoner trimming his nails with a pair of scissors!