her. But now, humbled by defeat, he said,--

"I've looked a great while for you, Madam. I would never 'a' give up,
though, if I'd gone to Maine or Labrador, and round by the Rocky
Mountains, hunting for you. I heard you singing in the church this
morning, and I knew your voice. Though it didn't sound natural
right,--but I knew it was nobody else's voice,--as if the North mostly
hadn't agreed with it. And I heard it yesterday somewhere,--that's what
'sured me. I was going along the street, when I heard it; but it was not
this house you were in."

"And it was you, then, Julius, who betrayed me to the person who
supposes himself to be your protector,--and this because you thought
surely I must be glad to return, when I had lost my friends here through
ill report! Is that the way your war is carried on?"

"My war, Madam?"

But Julius did not look at his mistress; he looked away, and shrugged
his shoulders. The device of which he was convicted had seemed to him so
good, so sure, nevertheless had failed.

She had scarcely finished speaking, when a note was brought to the door.
It was from Adam von Gelhorn.

"I am making my preparations to go at nine to-morrow," said the
note. "Will you come to the church before? I would like to
remember having seen you there last, at the organ. There's a
bit of news just reached me, said to be a secret. General
Edgar's command aims at preventing the junction of our forces
before Y----. He is strong enough, numerically, to overthrow
either division in separate conflict, and this is his
Napoleonic strategy. But he will be outwitted. There's no doubt
of it. Do not despair of our cause, whatever you hear during
the coming fortnight. I shall report myself immediately to
McClellan, and he may make a drummer-boy of me, if he will.
Henceforth I am at his service till the war ends.

"VON G----."

Thrice she read this note; when her eyes lifted at last, Julius was
still standing where she had left him. She started, seeing him, as if
his presence there at the moment took a new significance; her heart
fainted within her.

Had _he_ heard this secret of which Von Gelhorn spoke? It was her
husband's _life_ that was in jeopardy!

"When are you going, Julius?" she asked.

"To-morrow. Oh, Madam, give me some word for him!"

Red horror of death, how it rises before her sight! She shuddered,
cowered, sank before the blackness of dar