Darpent, with his hat in his hand. 'Madame,' he entreated, 'is it
possible to you to come to poor M. d'Aubepine? I have fetched her to
her husband, but there will be piteous work when his wound is
visited, and she will need all the support that can be given to her.
My mother and sister are doing all in their power, but they have many
other patients on their hands.'
I hurried to my Princess, and with some difficulty obtained a
hearing. She called up M. Darpent, and made him tell her the names
of all the five sufferers that he and his sister had taken into the
Verdon house, and how they were wounded, for Conde's followers being
almost all noble, she knew who every one was. Two were only slightly
wounded, but two were evidently dying, and as none of their friends
were within reach, Madame Darpent and her daughter were forced to
devote themselves to these, though fortunately they had not been
brought in till her son had piloted M. d'Aubepine through the crowded
streets--poor little Cecile! who had hardly ever set foot on the
pavement before. Her Count was in a terrible state, his right leg
having been torn off by a cannon-ball below the knee, and he would
have bled to death long before reaching home had not Clement Darpent
observed his condition and taken him into the house, where Madame had
enough of the hereditary surgical skill acquired in the civil wars to
check the bleeding, and put a temporary dressing on the wounds until
a doctor could be obtained; for, alas! they were only too busy on
that dreadful day.
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