nd."

"This is a puzzle to me I cannot comprehend."

"I 'll tell you how to understand it all, and easily, too, Herr
Lieutenant. Take this letter and forward it to the Council of War;
declare that Cadet Ravitzky acknowledged to yourself that he was a
Hungarian, heart and soul, and, save the eagle on his chako, had nothing
of Austria about him. Add, that a hundred thousand of his countrymen
are ready to assert the same; and see if they will not make _you_ an
Ober-lieutenant, and send me to Moncacs for life." He held out the
letter, as he spoke, for Frank to take, and looked as proudly defiant as
if daring him to the act.

"You cannot suppose I would do this?"

"And yet it is exactly your duty, and what you took a solemn oath to
perform not a week back."

"And if there be such disaffection in the troops, how will they behave
before an enemy?" asked Frank, eagerly.

"As they have always done; ay, even in this very campaign that now
threatens us, where men are about to strike a blow for liberty, you 'll
see our fellows as foremost in the charge as though the cause at stake
was not their own."

"Ravitzky, I wish you had told me nothing of all this."

"And yet you forced the confession from me. I told Walstein, over and
over, that you were not suited for our plans. You rich men have too
much to lose to venture on so bold a game; he thought otherwise, and all
because you were an Irishman!"

"But I have scarcely ever seen Ireland. I know nothing of its grievances
or wrongs."

"I believe they are like our own," said Ravitzky. "They tell me that
your people, like ours, are warm, passionate, and impatient; generous
in their attachments, and terrible in their hatred. If it be so, and if
England be like Austria, there will be the same game to play out there
as here."

Frank grew thoughtful at these words. He recalled all that the Abbe
D'Esmonde had said to him about the rights of a free people and the
duties of citizenship, and canvassed within his own mind the devoirs of
his position; meanwhile Ravitzky had fallen back to the men and taken
his place in the ranks.

"They'll not compromise me before an enemy," thought Frank; "that I may
rely on." And with this trustful assurance he mounted and rode slowly
forward, deeply sunk in thought, and far less pleasantly than was
his wont to be. From all the excitement of his late life, with its
flatteries and fascinations, he now fell into a thoughtful mood, the
deeper that i