moments without speaking.

"Augure sinistre!" muttered he within his teeth, as his piercing gaze was
riveted upon the picture before him. "Voila la troisieme fois peut-etre
la derniere." Then suddenly rousing himself, he advanced close to me, and
seizing me by the arm with a grasp like iron, inquired:--

"How came you by this picture? The truth, sir; mark me, the truth!"

Without showing any sign of feeling hurt at the insinuation of this
question, I detailed, in as few words as I could, the circumstance by which
the locket became mine. Long before I had concluded, however, I could mark
that his attention flagged, and finally wandered far away from the matter
before him.

"Why will you not give me the information I look for? I seek for no breach
of faith. The campaign is all but over. The Prussians were beaten at Ligny,
their army routed, their artillery captured, ten thousand prisoners taken.
Your troops and the Dutch were conquered yesterday, and they are in full
retreat on Brussels. By to-morrow evening I shall date my bulletin from
the palace at Laeken. Antwerp will be in my possession within twenty-four
hours. Namur is already mine. Cambronne, Lefebvre," cried he, "cet homme-la
n'en sait rien," pointing to me as he spoke; "let us see the other." With
this he motioned slightly with his hand as a sign for me to withdraw, and
the next moment I was once more in the solitude of my prison-room, thinking
over the singular interview I had just had with the great Emperor.

How anxiously pass the hours of one who, deprived of other means of
information, is left to form his conjectures by some passing object or some
chance murmur. The things which, in the ordinary course of life, are passed
by unnoticed and unregarded, are now matters of moment,--with what scrutiny
he examines the features of those whom he dare not question; with what
patient ear he listens to each passing word. Thus to me, a prisoner,
the hours went by tardily yet anxiously; no sabre clanked; no war-horse
neighed; no heavy-booted cuirassier tramped in the courtyard beneath my
window, without setting a hundred conjectures afloat as to what was about
to happen. For some time there had been a considerable noise and bustle in
and about the dwelling. Horsemen came and went continually. The sounds of
galloping could be heard along the paved causeway; then the challenge of
the sentry at the gate; then the nearer tread of approaching stops, and
many voices speak