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But Ortheris seemed shut up in some sort of trance. He answered slowly, without a sign of irritation, in the same cadenced voice as he had used for his firing-party orders "Hi swum the Irriwaddy in the night, as you know, for to take the town of Lungtungpen, nakid an' without fear. Hand where I was at Ahmed Kheyl you know, and four bloomin' Pathans know too.
Now you can be off. I went up to my father. His plight was more desperate than mine, for I had resembled the condemned before the firing-party, to whom the expected bullet brings a merely physical shock.
Well, said Urquhart, he could promise her that she should not be that. She might cry for mercy, he told her, or stifle screams; but she wouldn't stifle yawns. "Macartney," he said, "would sooner see himself led out by a firing-party than in such an engine as I have out there." She smiled at her memory. "James is not of the adventurous," she said but wasn't he? "Shall I be cold?"
Then you know what happened to the young Marmette? Garoche trembled a little, but drew himself up and said: 'M'sieu' le Baron, he tried to kill the Intendant there was no other way. 'What part played you in that, Garoche? Some trembled, for they knew the truth, and they feared the mad will of the Baron. 'I ordered the firing-party, M'sieu' le Baron, he answered.
If you're caught like this, there'll be a firing-party at daybreak for you. 'I don't care, cried the lad hysterically. 'They can't keep me here. I'm going' 'Here' Throwing the young fellow against the parapet and holding him there by leaning heavily against him, Durwent felt for his water-bottle and withdrew the stopper.
At the close of the service, the firing-party in their places, six on either side of the grave, would fire three volleys into the air, while the band breathed a solemn dirge. And perhaps most impressively tragic touch of all the party would march briskly off to the strains of the liveliest air in the whole repertoire of the band.
He was brought before a mock tribunal, and being condemned to death was placed with his back to a wall, like a soldier at a military execution, and fired at with blank cartridges. At Vrigne-aux-Bois one of these harmless buffoons, named Thierry, was accidentally killed by a wad that had been left in a musket of the firing-party.
In a moment the horrible truth struck him; it was the firing-party which had been told off for his own execution! That he was right was proved by the fact that he almost immediately afterwards heard footsteps approaching the door and echoing along the passage. There was a rattle of keys, and he was confronted, this time, by two armed seamen, who roughly bade him get on his feet and accompany them.
I've laid them in it." "Are you sure they're all dead?" "I've burnt their fingers with matches, sir. I don't know of any better way to make sure." "Very well. Can you remember any of the burial service?" "'Fraid not, sir." "Um! That's a pity. And I'm afraid I can't spare the time. Take a firing-party, Captain O'Rourke, and give them the last honors, at all events."
Then exclaiming, "Success to the cause of my oppressed countrymen!" she let the handkerchief drop. At that moment the firing-party, a few paces off, discharged the fatal volley; and as the smoke cleared off we saw her stretched on the ground, not a movement to indicate that she lived being perceptible.
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