"There, sir; that will answer your purpose, and
I am certain it is all that is required of me."
"What do you take to be my purpose, then, sir?"
"To report yourself wounded in your dispatches," replied the doctor,
with great steadiness; "and you may say that an old woman dressed your
hurts--for if one did not, one easily might!"
"Very extraordinary language," muttered the Englishman.
Here Captain Wharton interfered; and, by explaining the mistake of
Colonel Wellmere to proceed from his irritated mind and pain of body, he
in part succeeded in mollifying the insulted practitioner, who consented
to look further into the hurts of the other. They were chiefly bruises
from his fall, to which Sitgreaves made some hasty applications,
and withdrew.
The horse, having taken their required refreshment, prepared to fall
back to their intended position, and it became incumbent on Dunwoodie to
arrange the disposal of his prisoners. Sitgreaves he determined to leave
in the cottage of Mr. Wharton, in attendance on Captain Singleton.
Henry came to him with a request that Colonel Wellmere might also be
left behind, under his parole, until the troops marched higher into the
country. To this the major cheerfully assented; and as all the rest of
the prisoners were of the vulgar herd, they were speedily collected,
and, under the care of a strong guard, ordered to the interior.
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