Trujano, raising his eyes to heaven, cried out-- "Bless the Lord! oh, bless the Lord, all ye who are His servants!" He then proceeded to distribute the supper rations--giving them out with his own hands--after which the torches were extinguished, and the besieged betook themselves to sleep, trusting in Him who never slumbers, and whose protection was to them as a shield and buckler. CHAPTER FORTY SIX. A WALKING CORPSE. While the mass was being performed in the Piazza, the Spanish sentries, who guarded the trenches outside, could distinctly hear the voices of those who took part in it; and could even distinguish the words of the sacred song, which alone broke the silence of the night. The sentinel whose post was nearest to the entrenchments of the town, had for his companions a number of dead bodies of the enemy, who had fallen during a sortie of the insurgents, and whose corpses their comrades had no opportunity of interring. These, as already mentioned, were all more or less mutilated by their cruel foes, who oft-times revenged themselves on the dead for defeats they had suffered from the living. The sentry in question walked to and fro upon his prescribed rounds, alternately turning face and back upon the mangled corpses. On each occasion, as he faced round half mechanically he counted them, by way of killing the time, at the same time preserving between them and himself a respectable distance. After a short while spent in this melancholy pastime, the sounds accompanying the ceremony of the mass attracted his attention; and, as a change, he commenced endeavouring to make out the words that were being spoken or chaunted. A distant voice exclaimed-- "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right-hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." "What the devil can it mean?" soliloquised the soldier. "Latin it must be! Some prayer for these dead rebels, I suppose!" While thus alluding to the corpses that lay near, he once more glanced towards them. All at once it appeared to him that their number had increased! "I must have made a mistake," muttered he to himself; "I surely counted only nine of them a moment ago; and yet now there was surely ten--one, two, three--yes, ten!" He again lent his ears to listen to the chaunting of the psalm-- "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot." "Ah!" exclaimed the sentry, "they are talking of dragoons--the Queen's dragoons, I suppose?"