But already--before Jeanne had finished speaking--Maurice had turned on
his heel and was speeding back down the narrow street. Tired and weak as
he was, his one idea was to see Crystal, to hear her voice, to see the
love-light in her eyes. He felt that at sight of her all fatigue would
be gone, all recollections of the horrors of this day wiped out with the
first look of joy and relief with which she would greet him.

II

The service was over, and the congregation had filed out of the
cathedral. Crystal was one of the last to go. She stood for a long while
in the porch looking down with unseeing eyes on the bustle and
excitement which went on in the Place down below. Her mind was not
here. It was far indeed from the crowd of terror-stricken or gossiping
men and women, of wounded soldiers, terrified peasantry and anxious
townsfolk that encumbered the precincts of the stately edifice.

From the remote distance--out toward the south--came the boom and roar
of cannon and musket fire--almost incessant still. There was her heart!
there her thoughts! with the brave men who were fighting for their
national existence--with the British troops and with their
sufferings--and she stood here, staring straight out before
her--dry-eyed and pale and small white hands clasped tightly together.

The greater part of to-day she had sat by the open window in the shabby
drawing-room in the rue du Marais, listening to that awful fusillade,
wondering with mind well-nigh bursting with horror and with misery which
of those cruel shots which she heard in the dim distance would still for
ever the brave and loyal heart that had made so many silent sacrifices
for her.

And her father, vaguely thinking that she was anxious about
Maurice--vaguely wondering that she cared so much--had done his best to
try and comfort her: "She need not fear much for Maurice," he had told
her as reassuringly as he could--"the Brunswickers were not likely to
suffer much. The brunt of the conflict would fall upon the British. Ah!
but they would lose very heavily. Wellington had not more than seventy
thousand men to put up against the Corsican's troops; and only a hundred
and fifty cannon against two hundred and eighty. Yes, the British would
probably be annihilated by superior forces: but no doubt the other
allies--and the Brunswickers--would come off a great deal better."

But Mme. la Duchesse douairiere d'Agen offered no such consolation. She
contented herself w