you the horse will be there and you are to fetch
it--here it is. The messenger will know my seal."

"I am indeed obliged to you," Rupert said, "you have thought of
everything; but how will the doctor explain my not being
forthcoming in the morning?"

"Oh, he will arrange that easily enough. The soldiers will all
sleep soundly enough after this march; besides, they will not, in
all probability, be near his quarters, so he will only have to say
that he found you were too ill to continue the journey, and had
therefore had you carried to a confrere of his. You must be under
no fear, Rupert, of any evil consequences to anyone, for no one
will ever connect you with the convoy. You will be missed at roll
call, but that will go for nothing. When you are absent again at
six o'clock, you will be reported as missing. Then it will be
supposed that you are hid in the city, and a sharp watch will be
set at the gates; but after a few days it will be supposed that you
have either got over the walls, or that you have gone out disguised
as a peasant. A prisoner of war more or less makes but little
difference, and there will never be any fuss about it."

Soon after dusk on the evening of the 13th of October, Adele de
Pignerolles was sitting alone in a large room in the house of
Madame de Soissons. A wood fire was blazing, and even in that
doubtful light it might have been seen that the girl's eyes were
swollen with crying. She was not crying now, but was looking into
the fire with a set, determined look in her face.

"I don't care," she said; "they may kill me at Saint Marie, but I
will never say yes. Oh, if papa were but here."

At that moment there was a knock at the door, and a bright-looking
waiting maid entered.

"A note, mademoiselle, from Mademoiselle d'Etamps--and
mademoiselle," and she put her finger mysteriously to her lips, "it
is a new lackey has brought it. I told him to come again in ten
minutes for an answer; for I thought it better he should not come
in to be looked at by Francois and Jules."

"Why not, Margot?" Adele asked in great surprise.

"Because, mademoiselle, he seemed to me--I may be wrong, you
know--but he seemed to me very, very like--"

"Like whom, Margot? How mysterious you are."

"Like the English officer," Margot said, with an arch nod.

Adele leapt to her feet.

"You must be mad, Margot. There, light a candle."

But without waiting, Adele knelt down close to the fire, and broke
open the le