A AN TS

“TUlace 1+ 2 hne thine he ~ad. 0 soldicrs tremble hike womaon, we =hall have to dress up our womnien as seldiers. 1t as

truc yvou are very o he continued, (';Hyhinw hold ot her and scannime llu' closelve vou will got used to it i time.,

“Never, never R cricd Blanche, without drcanimg how dangerous it was for her to manitfest her feclings before such @ witness, | never oct uscd tosuch horrors”

“ Bov,” he loostne her, do vou think a nation can be regencrated withont spilling blood 2 Listen to my advice 5 keep vour reflections to vourself. 11 ever vou fall into the hands of the Rovalists thev will give you no more merey than [ have done to their soldiers.” And saving these words he went out.

• Blanche,” sard Marccau,

Voung,

Jdo vou know,

i that man had given one gesture, one sign, that he recognised you, Towould have

blown his bramns= out ?

MV God DT shie sand, Iading her face in

her hands, when 1T think that my father nught fall o the hads of thi- teer, that 1 he had been made prizonor, thi-

night, botore my eyves—-—1Iti=atrocions. [ there no longor pity in this world = Ol pardon, pardon,” she cad. turming (o Marceau, * who =hould know that better than I 27

At thiz mstant a servant entered anunounced that the horses were ready

and

e A

LININIINT N, 5

oot ws start, i the name of Heaven 1 he erted 5 there 1s blood o the air we breathe hoere”

CNCs Tet us vo” ceau, wnd they descended

rephed Mo

tooether.

CITAPTTOR T,

Marcrau found ar the dooy o ol thirty men whom the CGoneral-in-Chicl had ordered o

s~cort them to Nantes,

Asthev galloped alone the rioh- road, Blanche told him her his ~Lory; cow, hor mother beine dead, she fad heen brought up by her fativar how her cducation, oIVl Dy man, had tomed her to which, on

JdCC L A= t'\L‘]'(,'ifiL‘:% the msuwrrec- tion breakimye out, had hecome ~o uscful to her in followinge her father. As she timshed her i storv, thev saw twinkhne

i betore them in the mist the Thiehts ol Nantes. The little troop crosscd

the Tomre, and some scconds alter Marceau was Mmoo othe arms ol his mother, 2\ few words suthced to mterest his mother and

Asters i his voung companion. No sooner had Blanche manifested a desire to change her dress than the two vounge oirls Ted her awayv, cach (ll\})ll[]]l“ which =hould have the pleasure of serving her as ladyvis-maid. When Blanche c—\muul Marcean stared m oastonishment. I'n her Arst costnme he had hardlv noticed her extreme beauty and oracefulness, which she had now resumed with her woman's dress. Ttis true, she had taken the greatest pains to make herself as pretty as possible s for one instant before her olass shehad foreotten war, insurrcction, and carnace. The most mnocent =oul ha- 1ts coquetry when 1t hrst begins to love,

Marccau could not utter a word, Blanche ~miled jovously, for ~aw that ~he appearced as beautitul to him as -he had \lk‘:\il'k‘(l.

.\]ik'

[n the ovenimg the voung fiinee ol Marceau ' ~istor cone, and theie was o1

houtscin Nantes—once onlv, perhaps—where all was happines. and love, sarroundad,

1L Wi, by tears and sorrow,

MO,

Al from thi= thne forth., a new ltte began for Marccau and Blanche. 3,~Tuuuu ~aw o happier future before him,

a1t was not strange that Dlanche should