ch a moment!"

"We will remain, Raoul. There may come a moment when thou wilt be glad
to have the prayers of believers, God leadeth us hither, either to take
thee away, or to remain, and look to thy eternal welfare, amid the
din of war."

Raoul gazed at the beautiful enthusiast with an intensity of love and
admiration that even her truthful simplicity had never before excited.
Her mild eyes were kindling with holy ardor, her cheeks were flushed,
and something like the radiance of heaven seemed to beam upon her
countenance. The young man felt that time pressed; he saw no hope of
overcoming her resolution in season to escape the approaching boats; and
it might be that the two would be safer in some nook of the ruins than
in attempting to return to the shore. Then, that never-dying but latent
wish to have Ghita with him aided his hasty reasoning, and he decided to
permit the girl and her uncle to come upon the islet that he was to
defend in person.

Some signs of impatience had begun to manifest themselves among his
people, ere Raoul made up his mind to the course he would follow. But
when he landed, supporting Ghita, that chivalry of character and homage
to the sex, which distinguish the southern Frenchman, changed the
current of feeling, and their two acquaintances were received with
acclamation. The act of self-devotion seemed heroic, and that it always
enough to draw applause among a people so keenly alive to glory. Still,
the time to make the necessary dispositions was short. Fortunately, the
surgeon had taken his post on this islet, as the probably scene of the
warmest conflict; and he had contrived to make his preparations to
receive the hurt, in a cavity of the rock behind a portion of the ruin,
where the person would be reasonably safe. Raoul saw the advantages of
this position, and he led Ghita and her uncle to it, without pausing to
deliberate. Here he tenderly embraced the girl, a liberty Ghita could
not repel at such a moment; then he tore himself away to attend to
duties which had now become urgently pressing.

In point of fact, Sir Frederick Dashwood had made his disposition, and
was advancing to the assault, being already within the range of grape.
For the obvious reason of preventing the French from attempting to
escape to the shore, he chose to approach from that side himself--an
arrangement that best suited Raoul; who, foreseeing the probability of
the course, had made his own preparations with an ey