Parker helped O’Grady to lay the Frenchman on a table; a crumpled piece of paper attracted the colonel’s attention; he picked it up and read with difficulty: "Pourquoi me fermes-tu les yeux Lorsque tu me baises la bouche?" "What is it all about?" he said. "It belongs to Aurelle," said the doctor. The colonel carefully folded the little sheet of paper and slid it respectfully into the young Frenchman’s pocket. Then, after the doctor had finished dressing the wound and had sent for an ambulance, they laid the padre on Madame’s humble bed. They all took their hats off and stood silent for some time contemplating the strangely softened features of the childlike old man. The doctor looked at his watch; it was twenty minutes past nine. *CHAPTER XIX* Aurelle, on leaving hospital, was attached, while convalescent, to the English colonel, Musgrave, who commanded a supply depot at Estrées, a little village well behind the line. He missed the evenings with the Lennox Mess, but buying fodder and wood took him some way out into the pretty undulating country with its clear streams, and he loved Estrées, hiding its innumerable belfries among the flowery hills. It was a very antique city, and in its youth, in the time of the _seigneurs_ of Estrées, had played an important part in the affairs of France. For several hundred years she had defended her ramparts against the troops of the Kings of England, and from her walls she could see those same soldiers to-day camped about her, this time as familiar and courteous guests. Her tenacious burghers had repulsed both Leaguers and Spaniards with equal success. She now slept in smiling old age, having seen too many things to be surprised any more, while still retaining from the times of her glory her casket of beautiful mansions, built among courts and gardens with the noble simplicity of line dating from the best periods. Colonel Musgrave and his officers inhabited the large and handsome house of the Dutch merchant, Van Mopez, whom Colbert had established at Estrées to introduce the art of weaving and dyeing cloth. Aurelle liked to go and sit in the garden and read a History of Estrées written by Monsieur Jean Valines, correspondence member of the Amiens Academy, and author of "Nouvelles observations sur les miracles de la chapelle d’Estrées." This excellent work contained accounts of the great rejoicings and high festivals with which Estrées the Faithful had received the Kings, when they came to kneel and worship at the feet of the miraculous image in the Chapel of St. Ferréol. The municipal worthies, between the royal visits, prudently and carefully preserved the white and blue draperies embroidered with fleurs-de-lis, and the decorations of painted scenery.