Making first for the kitchen, she was
driven back by the clamor and confusion attending the removal of
those among the wounded who were strong enough to be placed in
the wagon. A second look round showed her the door leading into
the yard. She rushed to it with a cry of relief. She had just
laid her hand on the lock when the third report of cannon burst
over the place.
Starting back a step, Grace lifted her hands mechanically to her
ears. At the same moment the third shell burst through the roof
of the cottage, and exploded in the room, just inside the door.
Mercy sprang forward, unhurt, from her place at the window. The
burning fragments of the shell were already firing the dry wooden
floor, and in the midst of them, dimly seen through the smoke,
lay the insensible body of her companion in the room. Even at
that dreadful moment the nurse's presence of mind did not fail
her. Hurrying back to the place that she had just left, near
which she had already noticed the miller's empty sacks lying in a
heap, she seized two of them, and, throwing them on the
smoldering floor, trampled out the fire. That done, she knelt by
the senseless woman, and lifted her head.
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