"I rode along the line and counted the numbers. There are but
seventy-five on foot," he said, "and most of these have got more
or less severe wounds with their ugly weapons."

"Let the ground over which we have passed be carefully searched,"
he said, "and any of our men who show signs of life be carried in
front of the chateau."

Twelve men were found to be living; their wounds were at once
attended to and bandaged.

"I think most of them will do," Captain Mieville said. "They are
ugly looking gashes, but it is not like a bullet in the body."

The men who had been killed were found in most cases to have been
slain outright from the blows of hatchets, which had in several
cases completely severed their heads. While the wounds of the
soldiers were being attended to, Hector went to the gate at which
the baroness and her daughter were now standing.

"You are unhurt, I hope," the lady said as Hector approached.

"I have two or three more wounds," he said, "but, like those I had
before, they are of little account."

"It was a terrible fight," she said. "We watched it from the top
of the turret, and it seemed to us that you were lost each time
you plunged into the crowd, you were so few among such numbers.
Have you lost any men?"