for a week, and to facilitate his return, Count Saxe
released Brohl, the lieutenant, with the understanding that Gaston
Cheverny was to be set at liberty as soon as found. But he was not
found, nor was there any sign of him.

A man can not vanish like a ghost, said Count Saxe; so he set to
work with a good heart, to have Gaston Cheverny sought for. His wound
in the head might partly account for his disappearance. He had
perhaps wandered beyond the Austrian lines, and being wounded,
might have sought refuge in some farmhouse or peasant's hut, where
he would be found. Nothing seemed more likely. Every farmhouse and
peasant's hut, every village, every schloss even, was searched for the
wounded French officer, the Austrians assisting; but if Gaston
Cheverny had vanished from the earth, he could not have disappeared
more completely. I acknowledged that for the first week--nay for two
weeks--I was not seriously alarmed. A wounded man on foot can not
get out of a certain zone, and that zone was searched as one searches
for a gold piece dropped on the floor. But we found not Gaston
Cheverny. At the end of two weeks we were fairly puzzled, but by no
means in despair. Marvelous things happen in war, and a story of
the strange disappearances and stranger returns of men lost in
siege, battle, or reconnaissance, would read like the fables of the
ancient mythology.

At the end of a fortnight, I began to see signs of anxiety for
Gaston Cheverny in Count Saxe. Perhaps this was because Gaston's
disappearance came from his prompt ruse to save Count Saxe, and there
was little doubt that the bigger game would have been bagged but for
this ruse. Count Saxe thought constantly of Gaston Cheverny. He not
only instituted the most thorough search, but he offered a large
reward in money, out of his own purse. Trust Count Saxe to remember
the services of a friend! The one thought in my mind was Francezka.

CHAPTER XXII

HER BEST BELOVED

I considered within myself whether it were not my duty to confide to
Count Saxe the fact that Francezka was Gaston's wife, and I quickly
concluded that it was my duty. And so one night, sitting at the
writing table, I told him the story of Francezka's and Gaston's love.

Count Saxe listened to me attentively.

"So, my lady Francezka takes the bit between her teeth and marries the
man of her choice. Well, any one might safely have predicted as much.
It is a good thing, though, that her fancy turne