y from the King. A general,
not anybody of the household, you see. That's a distinct shade of the
present relation. He stayed just five minutes. Some personage from the
Foreign department at Headquarters was closeted for about a couple of
hours. That was of course business. Then two officers from the staff
came together with some explanations or instructions to her. Then Baron
H., a fellow with a pretty wife, who had made so many sacrifices for the
cause, raised a great to-do about seeing her and she consented to receive
him for a moment. They say he was very much frightened by her arrival,
but after the interview went away all smiles. Who else? Yes, the
Archbishop came. Half an hour. This is more than is necessary to give a
blessing, and I can't conceive what else he had to give her. But I am
sure he got something out of her. Two peasants from the upper valley
were sent for by military authorities and she saw them, too. That friar
who hangs about the court has been in and out several times. Well, and
lastly, I myself. I got leave from the outposts. That was the first
time I talked to her. I would have gone that evening back to the
regiment, but the friar met me in the corridor and informed me that I
would be ordered to escort that most loyal and noble lady back to the
French frontier as a personal mission of the highest honour. I was
inclined to laugh at him. He himself is a cheery and jovial person and
he laughed with me quite readily--but I got the order before dark all
right. It was rather a job, as the Alphonsists were attacking the right
flank of our whole front and there was some considerable disorder there.
I mounted her on a mule and her maid on another. We spent one night in a
ruined old tower occupied by some of our infantry and got away at
daybreak under the Alphonsist shells. The maid nearly died of fright and
one of the troopers with us was wounded. To smuggle her back across the
frontier was another job but it wasn't my job. It wouldn't have done for
her to appear in sight of French frontier posts in the company of Carlist
uniforms. She seems to have a fearless streak in her nature. At one
time as we were climbing a slope absolutely exposed to artillery fire I
asked her on purpose, being provoked by the way she looked about at the
scenery, 'A little emotion, eh?' And she answered me in a low voice:
'Oh, yes! I am moved. I used to run about these hills when I was
little.' And