"The handle of my sword, I should have said, and snapped it off like a pipe-stem." "But didn't it snap your hand off too?" asked the lieutenant, rather bewildered by the captain's statements. "Not at all; that is the most wonderful part of the story. It didn't even graze my skin." "That was very remarkable," added Lieutenant Somers, who could not see, for the life of him, how a cannon-ball could hit the handle of the sword without injuring the hand which grasped it. "It was very remarkable, indeed; but I was reminded of the circumstance by the remembrance that you were hit in the head by a bullet, which did not kill you. I shouldn't have mentioned the affair if I hadn't called to mind my own experience; for life yourself, Somers, I am a modest man; in fact, every brave man is necessarily a modest man." "Were you ever wounded, Captain de Banyan?" "Bless you, half a dozen times. At Magenta, the same bullet passed twice through my body." "The same bullet?" "Yes, sir--the same bullet. I'll tell you how it happened. I was in the heavy artillery there. The bullet of the Russian--" "The Russian! Why, I thought the battle of Magenta was fought between the Austrians and the French." "You are right, my boy. The bullet of the Austrian, I should have said, passed through my left lung, struck the cannon behind me, bounded back, and hitting me again, passed through my right lung. When it came out, it hit my musket, and dropped upon the ground. I picked it up, and have it at home now." "Whew!" added Lieutenant Somers in a low whisper. "It's quite warm to-day," he continued, trying to turn off the remark. "Very warm, indeed." "But didn't you fall after the ball had passed through both your lungs?" "Not at all. I walked five miles to the hospital. On my way, I met the Emperor Napoleon, who got off his horse, and thanked me for the valor I had displayed, and conferred on me the medal of the Legion of Honor. I keep the medal in the same bag with the bullet." "Then you have actually shaken hands with the Emperor of France?" cried the amazed lieutenant. "Yes; and King Victor Emmanuel called to see me in the hospital, where I was confined for five weeks. At Solferino, both their majesties shook hands with me, and thanked me again for my services. Being a modest man, I shouldn't want to say out loud that I saved the day for the French and Sardinians at Solferino. At any rate, their majesties did the handsome thing by me on that day." "I thought you were in the hospital five weeks after Magenta." "So I was; and well do I remember the little delicacies sent me by the King of Italy while I lay there on my back. Ah! that Victor Emmanuel is a noble fellow. At Solferino, he----" "But how could you have been at Solferino, if you were in the hospital five weeks?" "I did not die of my wounds, it is scarcely necessary for me to remark. I got well."