"
"I remember, of course--killed, bravely fighting."
"Yes; but it was on a forlorn hope, for which he volunteered, and in
the course of which he is said to have walked straight into an almost
obvious ambuscade of the enemy's."
"Now, my dear Miss Wade"--I always dropped the title of "Nurse," by
request, when once we were well clear of Nathaniel's,--"I have every
confidence, you are aware, in your memory and your insight; but I do
confess I fail to see what bearing this incident can have on poor Hugo's
chances of being hanged or committing suicide."
She picked a second flower, and once more pulled out petal after petal.
As she reached the last again, she answered, slowly: "You must have
forgotten the circumstances. It was no mere accident. General Faskally
had made a serious strategical blunder at Jhansi. He had sacrificed
the lives of his subordinates needlessly. He could not bear to face the
survivors. In the course of the retreat, he volunteered to go on this
forlorn hope, which might equally well have been led by an officer of
lower rank; and he was permitted to do so by Sir Colin in command, as a
means of retrieving his lost military character.
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