flew from thicket to thicket.

Suddenly they all gave way; the garden and lawns were emptied
save for the writhing wounded and motionless dead.

"Cheer!" gasped Lorraine; and the battered Chateau rang again
with frenzied cries of triumph.

The wounded were calling for water, and Jack and Lorraine brought
it in bowls. Here and there the bedding and wood-work had caught
fire, but the line soldiers knocked it out with their rifle-butts.
Whenever Lorraine entered a room they cheered her--the young
officers waved their caps, even a dying bugler raised himself and
feebly sounded the salute to the colours.

By the light of the candles Jack noticed for the first time that
Lorraine wore the dress of the Province--that costume that he had
first seen her in--the scarlet skirt, the velvet bodice, the
chains of silver. And as she stood loading the rifles in the
smoke-choked room, the soldiers saw more than that: they saw the
Province itself in battle there--the Province of Lorraine. And
they cheered and leaped to the windows, firing frenziedly, crying
the old battle-cry of Lorraine: "Tiens ta Foy! Frappe! Pour le
Roy!" while the child in the bodice and scarlet skirt stood up
straight and snapped back the locks of the loaded chassepots, one
by one.

"Once again! For France!" cried Lorraine, as the clamour of the
Prussian drums broke out on the hill-side, and the hoarse
trumpets signalled from wood to wood.

A thundering cry arose from the Chateau:

"France!"

The sullen boom of a Prussian cannon drowned it; the house shook
with the impact of a shell, bursting in fury on the terrace.

White faces turned to faces whiter still.

"Cannon!"

"Hold on! For France!" cried Lorraine, feverishly.

"Cannon!" echoed the voices, one to another.

Again the solid walls shook with the shock of a solid shot.

Jack stuffed the steel box into his breast and turned to
Lorraine.

"It is ended, we cannot stay--" he began; but at that instant
something struck him a violent blow on the chest, and he fell,
striking the floor with his head.

In a second Lorraine was at his side, lifting him with all the
strength of her arms, calling to him: "Jack! Jack! Jack!"

The soldiers were leaving the windows now; the house rocked and
tottered under the blows of shell and solid shot. Down-stairs an
officer cried: "Save yourselves!" There was a hurry of feet
through the halls and on the stairs. A young soldier touched
Lorraine timidly on the shou