s to become of me?'

'It is the Emperor's affair. I have already stayed far too long. My duty
calls me, and I must go.'

'You must go? And I must be abandoned alone to these savages? Oh, why
did I ever meet you? Why did you ever teach me to rely upon your
strength?' Her eyes glazed over, and in an instant she was sobbing upon
my bosom.

Here was a trying moment for a guardian! Here was a time when he had to
keep a watch upon a forward young officer. But I was equal to it. I
smoothed her rich brown hair and whispered such consolations as I could
think of in her ear, with one arm round her, it is true, but that was to
hold her lest she should faint. She turned her tear-stained face to
mine. 'Water,' she whispered. 'For God's sake, water!'

I saw that in another moment she would be senseless. I laid the drooping
head upon the sofa, and then rushed furiously from the room, hunting
from chamber to chamber for a carafe. It was some minutes before I could
get one and hurry back with it. You can imagine my feelings to find the
room empty and the lady gone.

Not only was she gone, but her cap and silver-mounted riding switch
which had lain upon the table were gone also. I rushed out and roared
for the landlord. He knew nothing of the matter, had never seen the
woman before, and did not care if he never saw her again. Had the
peasants at the door seen anyone ride away? No, they had seen nobody. I
searched here and searched there, until at last I chanced to find myself
in front of a mirror, where I stood with my eyes staring and my jaw as
far dropped as the chin-strap of my shako would allow.

Four buttons of my pelisse were open, and it did not need me to put my
hand up to know that my precious papers were gone. Oh! the depth of
cunning that lurks in a woman's heart. She had robbed me, this creature,
robbed me as she clung to my breast. Even while I smoothed her hair, and
whispered kind words into her ear, her hands had been at work beneath my
dolman. And here I was, at the very last step of my journey, without the
power of carrying out this mission which had already deprived one good
man of his life, and was likely to rob another one of his credit. What
would the Emperor say when he heard that I had lost his despatches?
Would the army believe it of Etienne Gerard? And when they heard that a
woman's hand had coaxed them from me, what laughter there would be at
mess-table and at camp-fire! I could have rolled upon the ground