Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 195: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A CITY WON. 181 your men, and if you succeed, you will be a cap- tain.’ mowed nightfall Belle-Rose, accompanied by Déroute, Pierre, and four or five sappers, left the sunken road and approached the ditches by crawling over the ground. The first sentinels who perceived him fired upon him; without giving them time to reload their guns, he started running toward the ditch, into which he let himself fall. Belle- Rose had provided himself with a sackful of tow which he had topped with ahat. Just as the Spaniards extended their guns above the rampart he threw this species of manikin into the ditch. It was already dark, and all the soldiers being deceived, they fired at it, with two or three exceptions. Belle-Rose jumped up at once; those who had not fired did so now, but the lieutenant had already reached the other side and had lodged himself behind a pile of rubbish without other accident than a ball lost in his clothes. Belle-Rose’s men, stretched out in the depres- sions in the ground, were waiting for his signal to descend. As to Belle-Rose himself, sure of not being disturbed, he immediately began the sapping of the rampart and worked with such ardor that in less than two hours he had con- trived an excavation which two men could occupy. The Spaniards kept on firing at him, but the balls flattened themselves against the stone or rebounded behind him; three or four among them had attempted to join the miner by passing over the rampart; but Pierre and Déroute had killed the two first; another, struck in the thigh, had fallen into the ditch, where he had broken his back; the fourth had been shot by Belle-Rose himself just as he was setting foot upon the soil. After these attempts, so badly terminated, the Spaniards prudently remained behind the wall. Belle-Rose whistled softly. At this signal, which had been agreed upon in advance, Déroute and Pierre ran to the border of the ditch. The one stopped the other. **Eh, friend, I am the sergeant!’’ said Déroute. ‘Eh, comrade, I am his brother,’’ replied Pierre, and he leaped into the ditch. _ Pierre joined Belle-Rose in the midst of the musket- shots. A ball scratched him close to the eyebrows. A half an inch deeper, and he would have been killed. “Eh, brother, they have baptized you,’’ said Belle-Rose on seeing the blood upon the forehead of the young soldier. Both set to work and pushed the task so vigorously that it was soon necessary to give a secoud whistle. This time it was Déroute who presented himself. The besieged threw (COPA iCelevoyoyl KS (E(0) =}