just as the last few files were passing.  Immediately in the rear of these were the litters, on which were borne such of the wounded as could be removed from the hospital without danger.  These were some thirty in number, and it seemed to both officers as somewhat singular, that the faces of all were, in defiance of the heat of the day, covered with the sheets that had been spread over each litter.  For a moment the suspicion occurred Jo Grantham, that Desborough might be of the number; but when he reflected on the impossibility that any of the wounded men could be the same whose voice had sounded so recently in the full vigour of health in his ear, he abandoned the idea.  Most of the wounded, as they passed, indicated by low and feeble moaning, the inconvenience they experienced from the motion to which they were subjected, and more or less expressed by the contortions of their limbs, the extent of their sufferings.  An exception to this very natural conduct was remarked by Grantham, in the person of one occupying nearly a central position in the line, who was carried with difficulty by the litter-men.  He lay perfectly at his length, and without any exhibition whatever of that impatient movement which escaped his companions.  On the watchful eye of Grantham, this conduct was not lost.  He had felt a strong inclination from the first, to uncover the faces of the wounded men in succession, and had only been restrained from so doing by the presence of the American medical officer who accompanied them, whom he feared to offend by an interference with his charge.  Struck as he was however by the remarkable conduct of the individual alluded to, and the apparently much greater effort with which he was carried, he could not resist the temptation which urged him to know more.

“Stay,” he exclaimed to the bearers of the litter, as they were in the act of passing.  The men stopped.  “This man, if not dead, is evidently either dying or fainting —­give him air.”

While speaking he had advanced a step or two, and now extending his right hand endeavoured gently to pull down the sheet from the head of the invalid, but the attempt was vain.  Two strong and nervous arms were suddenly raised and entwined in the linen, in a manner to resist all his efforts.

Grantham glanced an expressive look at Captain Granville.  The latter nodded his head in a manner to show he was understood, then desiring the litter-men to step out of the line and deposit their burden, he said to the medical officer with the sarcasm that so often tinged his address.

“I believe, sir, your charge embraces only the wounded of the garrison.  This dead man can only be an incumbrance to you, and it shall be my care that his body is properly disposed of.”

The officer coloured and looked confused.  “Really, sir, you must be mistaken.”

But Captain Granville cut short his remonstrance, by an order to the file of men in his rear, who each seizing on the covering of the litter, dragged it forcibly off, discovering in the act the robust and healthy form of Desborough.