ance. In his interest in what he saw, he probably exposed his
figure somewhat; and caught the eye of some sharp-sighted sentry,
in the village.

The first intimation of his danger was given him by seeing some
twenty Uhlans dart suddenly out of the trees, in which the village
lay, at the top of their speed while, almost at the same moment,
eight or ten rifles flashed, and the balls whizzed round him in
most unpleasant propinquity. Ralph turned in an instant; and
bounded down the rock with a speed and recklessness of which, at
any other moment, he would have been incapable. Fierce as was the
pace at which the Uhlans were galloping, they were still a hundred
yards distant when Ralph leaped upon his horse, and galloped out in
front of them.

There was a rapid discharge of their carbines, but men at full
gallop make but poor shooting. Ralph felt he was untouched but, by
the convulsive spring which his horse gave, he knew the animal was
wounded. For a couple of hundred yards, there was but little
difference in his speed; and then Ralph--to his dismay--felt him
flag, and knew that the wound had been a severe one. Another
hundred yards, and the animal staggered; and would have fallen, had
not Ralph held him up well, with knee and bridle.

The Uhlans saw it; for they gave a shout, and a pistol bullet
whizzed close to his head. Ralph looked round. An officer, twenty
yards ahead of his men, was only about forty yards in his rear. In
his hand he held a revolver, which he had just discharged.

"Surrender!" he shouted, "or you are a dead man!"

Ralph saw that his pursuers were too close to enable him to carry
out his intention of dismounting, and taking to the wood--which,
here, began to approach thickly close to the road--and was on the
point of throwing up his arm, in token of surrender; when his horse
fell heavily, with him, at the moment when the Prussian again
fired. Almost simultaneously with the crack of the pistol came the
report of a gun; and the German officer fell off his horse, shot
through the heart.

Ralph leaped to his feet, and dashed up the bank in among the
trees; just as another shot was fired, with a like fatal result,
into the advancing Uhlans. The rest--believing that they had fallen
into an ambush--instantly turned their horses' heads, and galloped
back the road they had come.

Ralph's first impulse was to rush down into the road, and catch the
officer's horse; which had galloped on a short distance w