694 THE DOG. 



one who entered with wistful eyes, as if imploring admit- 

 tance. Though continually repulsed, he never left the pre- 

 cincts night or day, and even before the wounded boy had 

 breathed his last, the faithful dog, struck with total paraly- 

 sis, had ceased to live. It is well known that the soldiers of 

 the French levies were often mere boys, brought from their 

 country homes, to undergo at once all the rigours of the ser- 

 vice. They were often accompanied by their little dogs, who 

 followed them as best they could. Often, after the carnage 

 of a desperate field, these dogs have been found stretched on 

 the mangled bodies of their youthful friends. A French officer 

 mortally wounded in the field, was found with his dog by his 

 side. An attempt having been made to seize a military decora- 

 tion on the breast of the fallen officer, the dog, as if conscious 

 how much his master had valued it, sprung fiercely at the 

 assailants. An unfortunate soldier, condemned for some of- 

 fence to die, stood bandaged before his comrades appointed 

 to give the fatal volley, when his dog, a beautiful spaniel, 

 rushed wildly forward, flew into his arms to lick his face, 

 and for a moment interrupted the sad solemnity. The 

 comrades, with tears in their eyes, gave the volley, and the 

 two friends fell together. A youthful conscript, severely 

 wounded in the terrible field of Eylau, was carried to the 

 hospital amongst hundreds of his fellows. Many days after- 

 wards, a little dog had found its way, no one knew how, 

 into the place, and amongst the wounded, the dying and 

 the dead, had searched out his early friend. The faint- 

 ing boy was found by the attendants with the dog beside 

 him, licking his hands. The youth soon breathed his last, 

 and a kind comrade took charge of the dog : but the animal 

 would take no food, pined away, and shortly died. And a 

 thousand other examples might be given of an affection in 

 this creature unaltered by changes of fortune, and enduring 

 to the last. 



The Dog, if we can judge by his motions in sleep, possesses 

 the faculty of imagination. His eyelids move', his lips quiver, 



