plainly saw the glistening tears which stole from under her eyelids, and
slowly rolled down her delicate cheek.

That was answer enough for him. He bowed, and kissing both her hands,
whispered--

"I knew that you would not be so cruel as to drive me from you. Wherever
fate may lead me, it will find me at your side as long as you require my
protection."

For a few seconds she let him keep her hand. She then gently withdrew it
from his grasp.

"I know that I ought to forbid you for your own safety to follow me;
but I have not the strength to do so. Heaven grant that you may never
reproach me for having acted as I have done."

XII

THE CAMP OF LAHORE

An unusually beautiful and dry spring favoured the advance of
the Russian army through the mountains. In the north of India the
temperature kept at an average of 68 degrees F., and day after day the
sun streamed down from a cloudless blue sky upon the broad plains of the
Punjab, through the bright green of which the Russian troops, in their
white summer uniforms, pushed on like long streaks of silver.

Everything pointed to the fortune of war being on their side, for they
had overcome the difficult and dreaded passage at Attock with unexpected
ease.

The commander of this lofty fortress received orders not to break
down the bridge across the Indus until General Blood's army, which was
directed to hold Peshawar and the Khyber Pass, had effected its retreat
and had to the last man passed the river.

The bridge at Attock, which is a high structure built across the narrow
bed of the Indus, which here foams down with swirling swiftness, is
considered a masterpiece of engineering. It is built in two tiers, the
upper of which carries the railway, while the lower forms a road for
carriages, beasts of burden, and foot-passengers. On either side of the
river is a fortified gate. The English commander of Attock trusted to
the strength of the forts standing some 800 feet above the river, and
imagined the Russians to be still far away.

The Russian vanguard had crossed the river Cabul, which joins the Indus
at Attock, at a point a few miles above the city, and thus appeared
simultaneously with General Blood's troops before the fortress.

Blood's troops were passing the bridge in endless long columns. Their
movement was often checked by blocks, caused by the dislocation of
the several units, and so it came about that, in the early morning,
a superior Russian force h