"I don't think so," said Ambroise Paré, probing the wound. "Ah! you hurt me a bit, did you know it?" said Malemort. "Yes, I suppose I do," was the surgeon's reply; "but courage, my friend!" "Oh, I am brave enough," said Malemort. "After all, this has been tolerable so far. Will it be much worse when you have to extract that infernal piece of iron?" "No, for here it is," said Ambroise Paré, triumphant, holding up, so that Malemort could see, the lance-head he had succeeded in removing. "I am very much obliged, Monsieur le Chirurgien," said Malemort, courteously. A murmur of admiring wonder welcomed the masterly skill of Ambroise Paré. "What! is it all over?" said Gabriel. "Why, it's perfectly marvellous." "We must agree too," rejoined Ambroise, smiling, "that the wounded man was not afraid of pain." "Nor the operator unskilful, by the Mass!" cried a new-comer behind the soldiers, whose entrance nobody had noticed amid the general anxiety. But at the well-known voice all stood aside respectfully. "Monsieur le Duc de Guise!" said Paré, recognizing the features of the commander-in-chief. "Yes, Master," rejoined the new-comer, "Monsieur de Guise; and I am amazed and delighted with your superb skill. By my patron, Saint François, I have just been watching at the hospital some downright blockheads of doctors, who have done more harm to our soldiers with their instruments, I swear, than the English with their weapons. But you extracted this iron stake, upon my word, as easily and gently as if it had been a gray hair. And I do not know you! What is your name, Master?" "Ambroise Paré, Monseigneur," said the surgeon. "Well, Master Ambroise Paré," said the duke, "I promise you that your fortune is made,--on one condition, however." "And may I know what the condition is, Monseigneur?" "That if I get wounded or bruised, which is very possible, especially in these days, you will take charge of me and treat me with as little ceremony as you showed this poor devil." "Monseigneur, I will do it," said Ambroise, bowing. "All men are equal in suffering." "Hum!" rejoined François de Lorraine, "you will try, in the case I have mentioned to you, that they may be equal also in the matter of being cured." "Will Monseigneur permit me now," said the surgeon, "to close and bandage this man's wound? There are many other wounded men who are in need of my services to-day." "Do so, Master Ambroise Paré," the duke replied. "Go on without paying any more heed to me. I am in haste to see you on your way to deliver as many patients as possible from the hands of our cursed bunglers. Besides, I must speak with Monsieur d'Exmès." Ambroise Paré at once set about dressing Malemort's wound. "Monsieur le Chirurgien, I thank you again," said the patient; "but if you will excuse me, I have still another favor to ask of you." "What is that, my fine fellow?" asked Ambroise.