40 AMBROISE 



mortal. I commenced my discourse to them, how M. de 

 Martigues, looking over the wall to mark those who were 

 sapping it, was shot with an arquebus through the body, 

 and I was called of a sudden to dress him. I found blood 

 coming from his mouth and from his wounds. Moreover, he 

 had a great difficulty of breathing in and out, and air came 

 whistling from the wounds, so that it would have put out 

 a candle; and he said he had a very great stabbing pain 

 where the bullet had entered. ... I withdrew some 

 scales of bone, and put in each wound a tent with a large 

 head, fastened with a thread, lest on inspiration it should 

 be drawn into the cavity of the chest; which has happened 

 with surgeons, to the detriment of the poor wounded; for 

 being fallen in, you cannot get them out; and then they 

 beget corruption, being foreign bodies. The tents were 

 anointed with a preparation of yolk of egg, Venice turpen- 

 tine, and a little oil of roses. ... I put over the wounds 

 a great plaster of diachylum, wherewith I had mixed oil 

 of roses, and vinegar, to avoid inflammation. Then I 

 applied great compresses steeped in oxycrate, and band- 

 aged him, not too tight, that he might breathe easily. 

 Next, I drew five basons of blood from his right arm, 

 considering his youth and his sanguine temperament. . . . 

 Fever took him, soon after he was wounded, with fee- 

 bleness of the heart. . . . His diet was barley-water, 

 prunes with sugar, at other times broth: his drink was a 

 ptisane. He could lie only on his back. . . . What more 

 shall I say? but that my Lord de Martigues never had an 

 hour's rest after he was wounded. . . . These things 

 considered, Gentlemen, no other prognosis is possible, save 

 that he will die in a few days, to my great grief. 



Having finished my discourse, I dressed him as I was 

 accustomed. When I displayed his wounds, the physicians 

 and surgeons, and other assistants present, knew the truth 

 of what I had said. The physicians, having felt his pulse 

 and seen that the vital forces were depressed and spent, 

 agreed with me that in a few days he would die. Then they 

 all went to the Due de Savoie, and told him M. de Marti- 

 gues would die in a short time. He answered them, " Possi- 

 bly, if he had been well dressed, he might have escaped 





