f air, and nearly dead with fright,"
suggested Mr. Tape.

"That rascally Sous-lieutenant Victor! half-drunk with
brandy-and-water," roared Captain Smith, who had by this time worked
himself into a state of great excitement. "At the same moment in ran
Jeannette, and, I could hardly believe my eyes, that Jezebel Coralie,
followed by half-a-dozen French voltigeurs, screaming with laughter! I
saw I was done," continued Mr. Smith, "but not for the moment precisely
how, and but for his comrades, I should have settled old and new scores
with Master Victor very quickly. As it was, they had some difficulty in
getting him out of my clutches, for I was, as you may suppose, awfully
savage. An hour or so afterward, when philosophy, a pipe, and some very
capital wine--they were not bad fellows those voltigeurs--had exercised
their soothing influence, I was informed of the exact motives and
particulars of the trick which had been played me. Coralie was Victor
Dufour's wife. He had been wounded at the assault of Badajoz, and
successfully concealed in that Andalusian woman's house; and as the
best, perhaps only mode of saving him from a Spanish prison, or worse,
the scheme of which I had been the victim, was concocted. Had not Dufour
wounded me, they would, I was assured, have thrown themselves upon my
honor and generosity--which honor and generosity, by-the-by, would never
have got Coralie's husband upon my back, I'll be sworn!"

"You will forgive us, mon cher capitaine?" said that lady, with one of
her sweetest smiles, as she handed me a cup of wine. "In love and war,
you know, every thing is fair."

"A soldier, gentlemen, is not made of adamant. I was, I confess,
softened; and by the time the party broke up, we were all the best
friends in the world."

"And so that fat, jolly looking Madame Dufour we saw in Paris, is the
beautiful Coralie that bewitched Captain Smith?" said Mr. Tape
thoughtfully--"Well!"

"She was younger forty years ago, Mr. Tape, than when you saw her.
Beautiful Coralies are rare, I fancy, at her present age, and very
fortunately, too, in my opinion," continued Captain Smith; "for what, I
should like to know, would become of the peace and comfort of society,
if a woman of sixty could bewitch a man as easily as she does at
sixteen?"

THE CHAMPION.

A ROMANTIC INCIDENT IN EARLY SPANISH HISTORY.

The clang of arms and the inspiriting sounds of martial music resounded
through the court-yard of the pa