nd they took the cold, fixed, distant look of a
sleep-walker. A moment and she drew a shuddering breath, and turned and
went out, and, groping in the outside darkness for the balustrade, went
unfaltering into the street.

A part of the garrison happened to be retreating that way at the time. A
few were still turning to fire at intervals; but the greater number were
hurrying along with bent heads, keeping close to the houses, and intent
only on escaping. Reaching the middle of the roadway she stood there
like a rock, her face turned in the direction whence the fugitives were
hastening.

Presently she saw that for which she waited. In the reek of smoke about
the burning gate, towards which she looked--and the flames of which
filled the street with a smoky glare--the glitter of steel shone out;
and in a moment, rank on rank, a dense column of men appeared, marching
shoulder to shoulder. She watched them come nearer and nearer, filling
the street from wall to wall, until she could see the glare of their
eyes; then with a cry which was lost in the tumult she rushed on the
bayonets.

With eyes shut, with arms open to receive the thrust. But the man whom
she had singled out--for one she had singled out--dropped his point with
an oath, and dealt her a buffet with butt and elbow that flung her aside
unhurt. A second did the same, and a third, until, bandied from one to
another, she fell against the wall, breathless and dizzy, but unhurt.

The column swept on; and she rose. She had escaped--by a miracle, as it
seemed to her. But despair still held her, and the roar of a mine
exploding not far off, the stunning report of which was followed by
heartrending wails, drove her again on her fate. She had not far to
look, for hard on the foot followed a troop of dragoons. The horses,
excited by the fire and the explosion, were plunging in every direction;
and even as the crazed woman's eyes alighted on them one fell and threw
its rider. It seemed to her that she saw her doom; and, darting from the
wall, she flung herself before them.

What was one woman on such a night, in such an inferno? The torrent of
iron, remorseless, unchecked, thundered over her and drove on along the
street. It seemed impossible that she should have escaped. Yet when some
came to look to the fallen soldier--whose neck was broken--the woman
beside him rose unhurt and without a scratch, and staggered to the
wall. There she leaned one moment to recover her brea