of the Adjutant, the
sergeant-major of the regiment to his side.

"Sergeant-major Bletson, I desire that, in future, on all occasions of
this kind, the women of the regiment may be kept out of the way. Look
to it, sir!"

The sergeant-major, who had stood erect as his own halbert, which he
held before him in a saluting position, during this brief admonition of
his colonel, acknowledged, by a certain air of deferential respect and
dropping of the eyes, unaccompanied by speech of any kind, that he felt
the reproof, and would, in future, take care to avoid all similar cause
for complaint. He then stalked stiffly away, and resumed, in a few
hasty strides, his position in rear of the troops.

"Hard-hearted man!" pursued the same voice: "if my prayers of gratitude
to Heaven give offence, may the hour never come when my lips shall
pronounce their bitterest curse upon your severity!"

There was something so painfully wild--so solemnly prophetic--in these
sounds of sorrow as they fell faintly upon the ear, and especially
under the extraordinary circumstances of the night, that they might
have been taken for the warnings of some supernatural agency. During
their utterance, not even the breathing of human life was to be heard
in the ranks. In the next instant, however, Sergeant-major Bletson was
seen repairing, with long and hasty strides, to the barrack whence the
voice proceeded, and the interruption was heard no more.

Meanwhile the officers, who had been summoned from the ranks for the
purpose of forming the court-martial, still lingered in the centre of
the square, apparently waiting for the order of their superior, before
they should resume their respective stations. As the quick and
comprehensive glance of Colonel de Haldimar now embraced the group, he
at once became sensible of the absence of one of the seniors, all of
whom he had desired should be selected for the court-martial.

"Mr. Lawson," he remarked, somewhat sternly, as the Adjutant now
returned from delivering over his prisoner to Ensign Fortescue, "I
thought I understood from your report the officers were all present!"

"I believe, sir, my report will be found perfectly correct," returned
the Adjutant, in a tone which, without being disrespectful, marked his
offended sense of the implication.

"And Lieutenant Murphy--"

"Is here, sir," said the Adjutant, pointing to a couple of files of the
guard, who were bearing a heavy burden, and following into the s