der their roof. All this intelligence she wrote home,
piecemeal as it came about, from time to time; and at last enclosed a
polite note, from the head of the chateau, soliciting, on the occasion of
his approaching mission to that neighbourhood, the honour of the company
of cet homme si justement celebre, Monsieur le Capitaine Richard
Doubledick.

Captain Doubledick, now a hardy, handsome man in the full vigour of life,
broader across the chest and shoulders than he had ever been before,
dispatched a courteous reply, and followed it in person. Travelling
through all that extent of country after three years of Peace, he blessed
the better days on which the world had fallen. The corn was golden, not
drenched in unnatural red; was bound in sheaves for food, not trodden
underfoot by men in mortal fight. The smoke rose up from peaceful
hearths, not blazing ruins. The carts were laden with the fair fruits of
the earth, not with wounds and death. To him who had so often seen the
terrible reverse, these things were beautiful indeed; and they brought
him in a softened spirit to the old chateau near Aix upon a deep blue
evening.

It was a large chateau of the genuine old ghostly kind, with round
towers, and extinguishers, and a high leaden roof, and more windows than
Aladdin's Palace. The lattice blinds were all thrown open after the heat
of the day, and there were glimpses of rambling walls and corridors
within. Then there were immense out-buildings fallen into partial decay,
masses of dark trees, terrace-gardens, balustrades; tanks of water, too
weak to play and too dirty to work; statues, weeds, and thickets of iron
railing that seemed to have overgrown themselves like the shrubberies,
and to have branched out in all manner of wild shapes. The entrance
doors stood open, as doors often do in that country when the heat of the
day is past; and the Captain saw no bell or knocker, and walked in.

He walked into a lofty stone hall, refreshingly cool and gloomy after the
glare of a Southern day's travel. Extending along the four sides of this
hall was a gallery, leading to suites of rooms; and it was lighted from
the top. Still no bell was to be seen.

"Faith," said the Captain halting, ashamed of the clanking of his boots,
"this is a ghostly beginning!"

He started back, and felt his face turn white. In the gallery, looking
down at him, stood the French officer--the officer whose picture he had
carried in his mind so