enge, when he leveled
his pistol and fired. There was a faint cry with the report, and a groan
from Jacques as the sword went through his body and heart, till the hilt
struck hard against his ribs as he fell, a dead man, on the marble
pavement. But the bullet from his pistol had pierced the fair forehead
of his sister, and she lay a bridal corpse in her husband's arms. It was
horrible.

"I spare you all the afflicting details, Piron, and will only add that
Paul left the plantation that night, and when I got home I found an
envelope post-marked 'New Orleans,' inclosing a paper, which constituted
me his sole executor, and leaving our little boy his heir. I had but a
short leave of a month, and duty called me again away. It was on the
anniversary of the day the tragedy occurred, after another long
interval of four years in the 'Scourge,' that I again returned, and then
there was wailing and moaning in my own dwelling. My poor Josephine had
never recovered from the shock; she drooped away like a lily, her little
boy by her side, and both died during my absence."

What makes the strong man's eyelids quiver and voice tremble--those eyes
that have looked calmly on death and carnage in every shape, with his
deep, calm voice cheering on the men to battle at his side? Ah!

"It was midnight, and I walked out to the little grave-yard where my
fathers had been buried, and bending my steps to a cluster of magnolias
on a little mound by itself, I--I--a--kneeled down beside the sod where
reposed all I had loved on earth! I do not know how long I remained
there, but presently I heard a groan near by, and a tall man rose up
from where he had been stretched, face downward, on the ground, and I
beheld Paul Darcantel! I could hardly recognize him at first, for he
seemed fifty years older than when we had last parted.

"'Cleveland,' he said, in a hollow, choking voice, 'forgive me! I am a
changed, and, I trust, a better man. I have been drawn to this holy spot
by the same errand which brought you hither, and though I did not expect
to meet you, yet I am glad of it now. Speak, and say you forgive me, and
you will shed a ray of hope and salvation into the heart of one who will
suffer unto the end! Speak!'

"Old memories crowded around me, and I saw before me the child in the
cradle, and with our arms round each other's necks as we played
together. I forgot, for the moment, the sisters lying there--bride,
mother, and baby-boy. The magnolia