at them! They
make me sick!"

The astonished doctor attempted to take his stand by me, offering his
services, but the troopers hustled him and poor Tavernier off up the
terrace steps.

"The two ladies in the carriage, Herr Rittmeister?" said a
cavalryman, coming up at salute.

"What? Ladies? Oh yes." Then he muttered in his mustache: "Always
around--always everywhere. They can't stay there. I want that
carriage. Sepp!"

"At orders, Herr Rittmeister!"

"Carry that gentleman to the carriage. Place Schwartz and Ruppert in
the wagon yonder. Get straw--you, Brauer, bring straw--and toss in
those boxes, if there is room. Where's Hofman?"

"In the pool, Herr Rittmeister."

"Take him out," said the officer, soberly. "Uhlans don't abandon
their dead."

Two soldiers lifted me again and bore me away in the darkness. I was
perfectly conscious.

And all the while I was listening for the gallop of my gendarmes, not
that I cared very much, now that Buckhurst was gone.

"Herr Rittmeister," I said, as they laid me in the carriage, "ask
the Countess de Vassart if she will let me say good-bye to her."

"With pleasure," said the officer, promptly. "Madame, here is a
polite young gentleman who desires to make his adieux. Permit me,
madame--he is here in the dark. Sepp! fall back! Loisel, advance ten
paces! Halt!"

"Is it you, Monsieur Scarlett?" came an unsteady voice, from the
darkness.

"Yes, madame. Can you forgive me?"

"Forgive you? My poor friend, I have nothing to forgive. Are you
badly hurt, Monsieur Scarlett?"

"I don't know," I muttered.

Suddenly the chapel bell of La Trappe rang out a startling peal; the
Prussian captain shouted: "Stop that bell! Shoot every civilian in
the house!" But the Uhlans, who rushed up the terrace, found the great
doors bolted and the lower windows screened with steel shutters.

On the battlements of the south wing a red radiance grew brighter;
somebody had thrown wood into the iron basket of the ancient beacon,
and set fire to it.

"That teaches me a lesson!" bawled the enraged Rittmeister, shaking
his fist up at the brightening alarm signal.

He vaulted into his saddle, wheeled his horse and rode up to the
peasant, Brauer, who, frightened to the verge of stupidity, sat on the
carriage-box.

"Do you know the wood-road that leads to Gunstett through the
foot-hills?" he demanded, controlling his fury with a strong effort.

The blank face of the peasant was answer enough; th