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He closed his eyes, and immediately a sound of cannonading, of

musketry and the rattling of carriage wheels seemed to fill his

ears, and now again drawn out in a thin line the musketeers were

descending the hill, the French were firing, and he felt his

heart palpitating as he rode forward beside Schmidt with the

bullets merrily whistling all around, and he experienced tenfold

the joy of living, as he had not done since childhood.

He woke up...

"Yes, that all happened!" he said, and, smiling happily to

himself like a child, he fell into a deep, youthful slumber.

CHAPTER XI