r ten o'clock.

D'ri rushed on ahead of them, wheeling with drawn sabre. The
driver pulled rein, stopping quickly. M. de Lambert was on the
seat beside him. I came alongside.

"Robbers!" said M. de Lambert, "What do you mean?"

The young ladies and Brovel were looking out of the door, Louise
pale and troubled.

"No harm to any, m'sieur," I answered. "Put up your pistol."

I opened the coach door. M. de Lambert, hissing with anger, leaped
to the road. I knew he would shoot me, and was making ready to
close with him, when I heard a rustle of silk, and saw Louise
between us, her tall form erect, her eyes forceful and commanding.
She stepped quickly to her father.

"Let me have it!" said she, taking the pistol from his hand. She
flung it above the heads of some village folk who had gathered near
us.

"Why do you stop us?" she whispered, turning to me.

"So you may choose between him and me," I answered.

"Then I leave all for you," said she, coming quickly to my side.

[Illustration: "Then I leave all for you."]

The villagers began to cheer, and old D'ri flung his hat in the
air, shouting, "Hurrah fer love an' freedom!"

"An' the United States of Ameriky," some one added.

"She is my daughter," said M. de Lambert, with anger, as he came up
to me. "I may command her, and I shall seek the aid of the law as
soon as I find a magistrate."

"But see that you find him before we find a minister," I said.

"The dominie! Here he is," said some one near us.

"Marry them," said another. "It is Captain Bell of the army, a
brave and honorable man."

Does not true love, wherever seen, spread its own quality and
prosper by the sympathy it commands? Louise turned to the good
man, taking his hand.

"Come," said she, "there is no time to lose."

The minister came to our help. He could not resist her appeal, so
sweetly spoken. There, under an elm by the wayside, with some
score of witnesses, including Louison and the young Comte de
Brovel, who came out of the coach and stood near, he made us man
and wife. We were never so happy as when we stood there hand in
hand, that sunny morning, and heard the prayer for God's blessing,
and felt a mighty uplift in our hearts. As to my sweetheart, there
was never such a glow in her cheeks, such a light in her large
eyes, such a grace in her figure.

"Dear sister," said Louison, kissing her, "I wish I were as happy."

"And you shall be as soon as you get to Paris,"