1 66 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 



a thrust with his lance. In this pitiable condition he 

 was rescued with difficulty by his comrades, and 

 brought, they said mortally wounded, to the ambulance 

 of Uncle Bob. 



Interested by the difficulty of the case, the surgeon 

 set himself, whether or no, to save him from his des- 

 perate state. He spared none of his skill or pains in 

 dressing his wounds, and rendering him a whole 

 man. Franceschini, too, performed his part of the task 

 by deciding with the obstinacy peculiar to a man of 

 his nature and calling, that he would not die as long 

 as there was the slightest chance of living. It is 

 scarcely necessary to add that he vowed eternal 

 thanks to the good surgeon for his almost miraculous 

 cure. 



Two or three years afterwards, a keeper's place in 

 the forest of Touques being vacant, the gendarme, who, 

 in spite of his wounds, was still whole of eye and of 

 foot, easily obtained it on the recommendation of his 

 kind saviour. 



At the moment when our acquaintance with him 

 commences Franceschini is a man of about fifty years, 

 thin, of nervous temperament and military bearing, 

 with hair closely cropped in conformity with the regu- 

 lation cut, and heavy, white, hanging moustache. His 

 wound, usually not very conspicuous on his parchment- 

 like skin, sometimes becomes, in certain states of the 

 weather, more conspicuous, and then appears in the 



