"Well, it's like this, Monsieur le Chirurgien," said Malemort. "Now that I can no longer feel that horrible stump in my flesh, it seems to me as if I were almost well." "Yes, almost," said Ambroise, pressing the ligatures together. "Well, then," said Malemort, in a modest but unembarrassed tone, "will you be kind enough to say to my master, Monsieur d'Exmès, that if there is any fighting to-morrow, I am in perfectly fit condition to take part in it!" "You fight to-morrow!" cried Ambroise Paré. "Ah! you must not think of it!" "Oh, I beg your pardon, but I can't help thinking of it," rejoined Malemort, sadly. "My poor fellow," said the surgeon, "just remember that I order a week of perfect rest,--at least a week in bed, and a week of light diet!" "Light diet, so far as food is concerned, if you please," said Malemort, "but not abstinence from battle, I beg you." "You are insane!" resumed Ambroise Paré; "if you but raise your head, the fever will seize you, and you will be a dead man. I said a week, and I will not take off an hour." "Oh!" roared Malemort, "in a week the siege will be at an end. I shall never get my fill of fighting." "What a blood-thirsty fellow he is!" said the Duc de Guise, who had been listening to this singular dialogue. "That is Malemort all over," said Gabriel, smiling; "and I beg you, Monseigneur, to give orders to have him taken to the hospital, and carefully watched there; for if he hears the noise of a mêlée, he is quite capable of trying to get out of bed, in spite of everything." "Oh, well, that's a very simple matter," said the Duc de Guise. "Give orders yourself to his comrades to carry him there." "But, Monseigneur," Gabriel rejoined with some embarrassment, "it is quite possible that I shall have work for my brave fellows to do to-night." "Oho!" said the duke, looking in surprise at Vicomte d'Exmès. "If Monsieur d'Exmès wishes," said Ambroise Paré, who had drawn near them after he had dressed the wound, "I will send two of my assistants with a litter to take this wounded fire-eater away." "I am very much obliged to you, and gladly accept your offer; I commend him to your most watchful care," said Gabriel. Malemort gave vent to another despairing roar. Ambroise Paré withdrew, having taken leave of the Duc de Guise. At a sign from Martin-Guerre, all but Monsieur d'Exmès retired to the farther end of the tent, and Gabriel was left tête-a-tête with the general directing the siege. CHAPTER XVI SMALL CRAFT SOMETIMES SAVE LARGE MEN-OF-WAR When Vicomte d'Exmès was left alone with the Duc de Guise, he began the conversation thus,-- "Well, Monseigneur, are you content?" "Yes, my friend," François de Lorraine replied,--"yes, I am content with the results so far attained, but I confess I am very anxious as to the future. It was this anxiety which drove me out of my tent to-night to wander about the camp, and come to you for encouragement and advice."