displayed on both sides, and on the part of
the French no officers were more distinguished for their valor than
the two guardsmen whose encounter on the previous evening we have just
related. Raoul de St. Prix, in the early part of the engagement, fell
sword in hand at the head of his company, thus meeting with honor a
fate he had earnestly desired. Henri de Grandville, in the course of
the day, found himself in command of the regiment, every officer of
higher rank having fallen. When the carnage had ceased, he laid a
stand of captured colors at the feet of the commander-in-chief, and
was complimented by Marshal Saxe at the head of the army, receiving
assurance that his gallantry should be at once reported to the king.

Flushed with triumph, the young guardsman flew to the presence of his
mother, to receive her embrace and recount in modest terms the story
of his deeds. She rejoiced in his safety, and sympathized with his
joy. But all at once, as he made her the confident of other hopes, and
enlarged on the prospect of his speedy union with Heloise de
Clairville, her countenance changed, and her eyes became suffused with
tears.

"Dear Henri," said she, "I knew nothing of this. Why did you not
sooner apprise me of this fatal passion?"

"Fatal passion, dear mother! Why do you thus characterize the love I
bear to the purest, the most beautiful of her sex?"

"She is, indeed, all that you paint her, Henri; but you must learn the
hard task of renouncing your hopes. You can never marry her."

"And why so? Do you refuse your consent?"

"Alas! no. But the Baron de Clairville--"

"He regards me with a favorable eye. I have reason to think he knows
of my attachment to his daughter, and approves of it. Even now, his
congratulations had a marked meaning, which could hardly be
ambiguous."

"But a fatal, an insurmountable barrier lies between you and the
object of your hopes."

"Do not keep me in suspense," cried the young soldier, "Explain this
mystery, I implore you."

"Have you fortitude to listen to a dreadful secret, the possession of
which has well nigh destroyed the life of your mother?"

"God will give me strength to bear any stroke," replied Henri. "Thanks
to your instruction and example, I have schooled myself to suffer,
unrepining, whatever Providence, in its infinite wisdom, sees fitting
to inflict. If I have a soul for the dangers of the field, I have
also, I think, the courage to confront those trials that