to and fro encouraging the men. The pages of the company had little
to do beyond from time to time carrying cans of wine and water to
the men engaged. Geoffrey and Lionel, finding that their services
were not required by Captain Vere, mounted on to the wall, and
sheltering themselves as well as they could behind the battlements,
looked out at what was going on.

"It doesn't seem to me," Geoffrey said, "that these walls will long
withstand the balls of the Spanish. The battlements are already
knocked down in several places, and I can hear after each shot
strikes the walls the splashing of the brickwork as it falls into
the water. See! there is Tom Carroll struck down with a ball. It's
our duty to carry him away."

They ran along the wall to the fallen soldier. Two other pages came
up, and the four carried him to the top of the steps and then down
into the courtyard, where a Dutch surgeon took charge of him. His
shoulder had been struck by the ball, and the arm hung only by a
shred of flesh. The surgeon shook his head.

"I can do nothing for him," he said. "He cannot live many hours."

Lionel had done his share in carrying the man down but he now turned
sick and faint.

Geoffrey caught him by the arm. "Steady, old boy," he said; "it
is trying at first, but we shall soon get accustomed to it. Here,
take a draught of wine from this flask."

"I am better now," Lionel said, after taking a draught of wine.