.

"Oh the horror of these meetings! But this man, your father struck him?
But why?"

Frank repeated his father's message, and Lady Gowan looked bewildered.

"I cannot understand," she said. "These German officers are favourites
of the King, and the baron must have cruelly insulted your father, or
he, who is so brave and strong and gentle, would never have done this.
They are proud and overbearing, and I know treat our English officers
with contempt. Yes, it must have been from that. When was it?"

"At daybreak."

"Where?"

"Just yonder in the Park."

"And your father took you?" said Lady Gowan, with a look of horror.

"No, no, mother; he did not know I was there till it was just over, and
he told me how it was."

"Yes, I see."

"I was horrified and frightened when Drew came and told me. I could not
keep away."

"No," she said softly, "of course not. I should have gone myself had I
known. But your good, brave father wounded, and the man who insulted
him escaped unhurt!"

"No, no, mother; he is--"

"Frank! Not dead?" she cried in horror, for the boy stopped.

"No, no; but very dangerously wounded. The soldiers carried him back on
a litter, but the doctor says that he will live."

Once more, while she knelt there, Lady Gowan's lips moved as her eyes
closed, and she bent down her head above her son's shoulder.

At last she raised it, and said, firmly:

"We must be brave over this terrible misfortune, Frank dear. But tell
me; do I know the worst?"

"Yes, yes, mother; I meant to keep a great deal back, and I can't look
in your eyes, and say anything that is not perfectly true."

"And never will, my son," she cried, with a wildly hysterical burst of
tears, which she checked in a few moments. "There, your mother is very
weak, you see, dear; but I am going to be strong now. Then that
explains the sternness of the arrest. Let us look the matter in the
face. Your father struck this German nobleman, the guest of the
regiment. They fought this morning, and the cause of the trouble is
badly hurt. The King and the Prince will be furious. They will look
upon it as a mutinous attack upon one of their favourites. Yes, I must
see the Princess at once. I will go to her chamber now; so leave me, my
boy, and wait. I will write to you, and I must try and get a note to
your father. There, go, my own brave boy, and be comforted. The
trouble may not be so great after all, for we have a friend who l