f the men to the captain.
Finally there came the crowning happiness of the birth of the children;
and she still remembered seeing a little knot of troopers gathered
round the diminutive creatures called Dick and Elsie.

But, very soon after, came the miserable day when the regiment was
ordered on active service, and she rode with her husband at the head of
his troop to the rendezvous. She could see him still as he appeared
mounted on Billy Pitt that day. Then followed the embarkation of men
and horses, and a desperate struggle with Billy, who objected to be
slung on board; and finally the last glimpse of sails disappearing over
the horizon and the long drive westward to Bracefort Hall. There old
Mr. Bracefort's delight over her arrival and over the children had
almost brought happiness back to her again; and cheerful letters from
Spain kept hope alive. But when the regiment reached the front, the
tragedy of war soon made itself felt. George Fitzdenys was badly
wounded in the first skirmish, two of the best troopers were killed and
others wounded; and, after that, twelve months of service seemed to cut
off member after member of what Fitzdenys had called the happiest troop
in the Army. The little cornet was shot dead, the troop-sergeant-major
drowned while crossing a treacherous ford, this trooper maimed for
life, that trooper--but she could not bear to think of it. And then
came the morning in August when old Mr. Bracefort had come in white and
trembling to break to her the news of Salamanca. It was well that in
those dreary days she had been obliged to look after him and give him
the comfort which he tried, but in vain, to give to her. She
remembered how, for all his courage, the old gentleman had drooped and
died after the death of his son, and how all ties with the old life
seemed to be severed, but for George Fitzdenys' letters of sympathy.
Then she recalled the arrival of Brimacott and Billy Pitt, which seemed
to mark the end of one stage of her life and the beginning of a new,
and yet to carry the last relics of the past continuously into the
present. All had been peaceful since then; the war had done its worst
for her, and her only link with Spain now lay in the messages, always
punctually delivered by old Lord Fitzdenys in person, that Captain
Fitzdenys sent his respectful service to her and hoped that she and the
children were well. She remembered how she had dreaded her first
meeting with Captain Fi