hing for the Count's
own ear, and begged the others to withdraw."

"So he thought himself in danger?"

"That he did. I saw him myself take off a large signet ring and lay it
on the table beside his watch, and he pointed them out to Hunyadi as he
came in, and said something in English; but the Count rejoined quickly,
'No, no. It's not come to that yet.'"

While they spoke slowly, I was able to gather at least the meaning of
what passed between them, but I lost all clew so soon as they talked
eagerly and rapidly, so that, confused by the unmeaning sounds, and made
drowsy by the fresh night-air, I at last fell off into a heavy sleep.

I was awakened by the noise of the wheels over a paved street. I looked
up, and saw, by the struggling light of a breaking dawn, that we were in
a village where a number of people were awaiting us. "Have you brought
the doctor?" "Where is the doctor?" cried several together; and he was
scarcely permitted to descend, so eager were they to seize and carry him
off.

A dense crowd was gathered before the door of a small two-storied house,
into which the doctor now disappeared; and I, mixing with the mass,
tried as best I might, to ask how the wounded man was doing, and what
hopes there were of his life. While I thus went from one to another
vainly endeavoring to make my question intelligible, I heard a loud
voice cry out in German, "Where is the young fellow who says he knows
him?"

"Here," cried I, boldly. "I believe I know him,--I am almost sure I do."

"Come to the door, then, and look in; do not utter a word," cried a tall
dark man I soon knew to be Count Hunyadi. "Mind, sir, for your life's
sake, that you don't disturb him."

I crept on tiptoe to the slightly opened door, and looked in. There, on
a mattress on the floor, a tall man was lying, while the doctor knelt
beside him, and seemed to press with all his weight on his thigh. The
sick man slowly turned his face to the light, and it was my father! My
knees trembled, my sight grew dim; strength suddenly forsook me, and I
fell powerless and senseless to the ground.

They were bathing my face and temples with vinegar and water to rally me
when the doctor came to say the sick man desired to see me. In a moment
the blood rushed to my head, and I cried out, "I am ready."

"Be calm, sir. A mere word, a gesture, may prove fatal to him,"
whispered the doctor to me. "His life hangs on a thread."

Count Hunyadi was kneeling beside my fa