The sergeant had grown callous to these sights. He walked on,
heeding scarcely more than he was heeded, came to the great square,
and climbed a street leading northwards, a little to the left of the
great convent. The street was a narrow one, for half its length
lined on both sides with fire-gutted houses; but the upper half,
though deserted, appeared to be almost intact. At the very head, and
close under the citadel walls, it took a sharp twist to the right,
and another twist, almost equally sharp, to the left before it ended
in a broader thoroughfare, crossing it at right angles and running
parallel with the ramparts.

At the second twist the sergeant came to a halt; for at his feet,
stretched across the causeway, lay a dead body.

He drew back with a start, and looked about him. Corporal Sam had
been missing since nine o'clock last night, and he felt sure that
Corporal Sam must be here or hereabouts. But no living soul was in
sight.

The body at his feet was that of a rifleman; one of the volunteers
whose presence had been so unwelcome to General Leith and the whole
Fifth Division. The dead fist clutched its rifle; and the sergeant
stooping to disengage this, felt that the body was warm.

'Come back, you silly fool!'

He turned quickly. Another rifleman had thrust his head out of a
doorway close by. The sergeant, snatching up the weapon, sprang and
joined him in the passage where he sheltered.