examined the features of the wounded one.

"Yes," he murmured between his teeth, "they were right in saying that my
exact double was to be found in the hostile army . . . . Truly one
would not know us apart! . . . I might be surveying myself in a
mirror. I did well to look for him in the rear of the Spanish army, and,
thanks to the fellow who rolled him over so conveniently with that
arquebus-shot; I was able to escape the dangers of the melee by carrying
him out of it."

"But that's not all," he thought, still carefully studying the tortured
face of the unhappy sufferer; "it is not enough to have got out of that.
I have absolutely nothing in the world, no home, no resources. Beggar by
birth, adventurer by fortune, I have enlisted, and have consumed my pay;
I hoped for plunder, and here we are in full flight! What am I to do?
Go and drown myself? No, certainly a cannon-ball would be as good as
that. But can't I profit by this chance, and obtain a decent position by
turning to my own advantage this curious resemblance, and making some use
of this man whom Fate has thrown in my way, and who has but a short time
to live?"

Arguing thus, he bent over the prostrate man with a cynical laugh: one
might have thought he was Satan watching the departure of a soul too
utterly lost to escape him.

"Alas! alas!" cried the sufferer; "may God have mercy on me! I feel my
end is near."

"Bah! comrade, drive away these dismal thoughts. Your leg pains
you--well they will cut it off! Think only of the other one, and trust