CHAPTER XV

AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE

pBe next morning Charlie was placed in a tent in which

lay several officers who had been wounded either the
night before or by shots from the town. He learned with
great pleasure, upon questioning the doctor, that the Swedes
had got off safely in the darkness. Some eight or ten men
only had straggled and been made prisoners, and not more
than twenty had been left dead on the field. He had the
satisfaction therefore of knowing that the defence made
by his own pikemen had been the means of saving the whole
force. In other respects he had nothing to complain of,
for he was well attended to, and received the same treat-
ment as the Russians.

For another ten days the roar of the cannon continued,
some seventy guns keeping up an incessant fire on the
town. At the end of that time the governor capitulated,
and was allowed to march out with the honours of war.

Only forty out of the brave garrison remained un-
wounded at the end of the siege. They, as well as such of
their comrades as were strong enough to travel, passed
through the lines of the Russians, and marched to Vyburg.

Three weeks after being made a prisoner Charlie’s
wound was so far healed that the surgeon pronounced him
able to sit a horse, and under the escort of an officer and

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