. He had often heard old men at home, veterans of
the Civil War, tell how grateful to them was the sight of a woman after
months of marching and fighting. Now he understood. These were only
cooks and housemaids, but their faces were not roughened like those of
soldiers, and their voices and footsteps were light and soft. Moreover,
they gave him food and drink--for which he would pay farmer Gratz,
however--and made much over him.

"We had royal guests last night," said the youngest of the maids, whom
they called Annette, a slender blond girl.

"Going to the battle front?"

"Oh, no. They were going the other way, toward Metz, and perhaps only
one was a real prince."

"Maybe this prince had seen enough of battles?"

"I cannot say. I saw him only once. He was a large man, middle-aged, and
he had a great brown beard."

John's whole body stiffened. Questions leaped to his lips, but he
compelled his muscles to relax and by a great effort he assumed a tone
of indifference.

"What was the prince's name?" he asked with apparent carelessness.

"I don't know, but the people around him were as respectful to him as
if he were a king. There were two women with him, but the master himself
served these two alone in their room."

"But you caught a glimpse of one of the women, the younger, Annette?"
said Johanna.

"So I did, but it was only a glimpse."

"What did she look like?" asked John, who was trying to keep down the
beating of his heart.

"It was only a second, but I saw a face that I will never forget. She
was very pale, but she had beautiful blue eyes like stars, and the most
lovely golden hair that ever grew in the world."

"Julie! My Julie!" groaned John under his breath.

"What did you say?"

"I was merely wondering who she was."

"I wondered, too, and so did all of us. We heard a tale that she was a
princess, a niece or a daughter, perhaps, of the great prince, with whom
she traveled, and we heard another that she and the woman with her were
French spies of the most dangerous kind who had been captured and who
were being taken into Germany. And the face of the beautiful young lady,
which I saw for only a moment, was French, not German."

John felt hot and then cold from head to foot. Julie a spy! Impossible!
Spies were shot or hanged, and sometimes women were no exceptions. How
could such a charge be brought against her? And yet anything could
happen in such a vast confused war as this. Julie, his Julie o