him among the heather and poured some brandy down his throat. All
round us was the vast countryside, green and peaceful, with nothing
living in sight save only the mutilated man beside me.

'Who has done this?' I asked, 'and what are you? You are French, and yet
the uniform is strange to me.'

'It is that of the Emperor's new guard of honour. I am the Marquis of
Chateau St Arnaud, and I am the ninth of my blood who has died in the
service of France. I have been pursued and wounded by the night-riders
of Lutzow, but I hid among the brushwood yonder, and waited in the hope
that a Frenchman might pass. I could not be sure at first if you were
friend or foe, but I felt that death was very near, and that I must take
the chance.'

'Keep your heart up, comrade,' said I; 'I have seen a man with a worse
wound who has lived to boast of it.'

'No, no,' he whispered; 'I am going fast.' He laid his hand upon mine as
he spoke, and I saw that his finger-nails were already blue. 'But I have
papers here in my tunic which you must carry at once to the Prince of
Saxe-Felstein, at his Castle of Hof. He is still true to us, but the
Princess is our deadly enemy. She is striving to make him declare
against us. If he does so, it will determine all those who are wavering,
for the King of Prussia is his uncle and the King of Bavaria his cousin.
These papers will hold him to us if they can only reach him before he
takes the last step. Place them in his hands tonight, and, perhaps, you
will have saved all Germany for the Emperor. Had my horse not been shot,
I might, wounded as I am----' He choked, and the cold hand tightened
into a grip, which left mine as bloodless as itself. Then, with a groan,
his head jerked back, and it was all over with him.

Here was a fine start for my journey home. I was left with a commission
of which I knew little, which would lead me to delay the pressing needs
of my hussars, and which at the same time was of such importance that it
was impossible for me to avoid it. I opened the Marquis's tunic, the
brilliance of which had been devised by the Emperor in order to attract
those young aristocrats from whom he hoped to raise these new regiments
of his Guard. It was a small packet of papers which I drew out, tied up
with silk, and addressed to the Prince of Saxe-Felstein. In the corner,
in a sprawling, untidy hand, which I knew to be the Emperor's own, was
written: 'Pressing and most important.' It was an order to me,