He was silent for a little. And then he found his voice,
and the oaths rolled terrible, thundering from him, as he cursed that
murderous wretch, and bade him go down and burn for ever in hell. And
the tears were raining down his face, and they choked him at last.
"I beg your pardon, sir, I'm sure," he said, "especially you being a
minister of some kind, I suppose; but I can't help it, he was such a
dear little man."
The man in black murmured something to himself: "_Pretiosa in
conspectu Domini mors innocentium ejus_"--Dear in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His innocents. Then he put a hand very gently on
the soldier's shoulder.
"Never mind," said he; "I've seen some service in my time, myself. But
what about that wound?"
"Oh, that; that's nothing. But I'll tell you how I got it. It was just
like this. The Germans had us fair, as I tell you, and they shut us up
in a barn in the village; just flung us on the ground and left us to
starve seemingly. They barred up the big door of the barn, and put a
sentry there, and thought we were all right.
"There were sort of slits like very narrow windows in one of the
walls, and on the second day it was, I was looking out of these slits
down the street, and I could see those German devils were up to
mischief.
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