If I had been sure that you had been wounded and taken prisoner I should have gone back; but even then I might, more likely than not, have been shot by the Austrians before I could explain matters.

But I really thought that you were killed; and as, from the shouting and firing, it seemed to me that the enemy had it all their own way there, I rode back to the farmhouse.
"Luckily the Austrians had not got there, so I took Tartar and rode with him to the king's quarters, and left him with his grooms, who knew him well enough; and then later on, having nothing else to do, I joined Seidlitz, and had the satisfaction of striking many a good blow in revenge for you.
"Late in the afternoon when the fighting was over I found Captain Lindsay, and told him about your loss.

He comforted me a bit by saying that he did not think you were born to be shot, and said that I had better stay with Donald till there was news about you.
Two days later he told me they had got the list of the prisoners the Austrians had taken, and that you were with them, and unwounded.
"Then, major, I was furious with myself that I had not been taken prisoner, too.

I should have been more troubled still if Captain Lindsay had not said that, in the first place, Tartar would have been lost if I had not come back straight to fetch him; and that, in the second place, it was not likely you would have been able to keep me with you had I been a prisoner, and we might not even have been shut up in the same fortress.
"I asked him what I had better do, and he said: "'I am going west to join Prince Henry.

You had better come with me.