lt which had been made
upon his corporal frame.

Finding that he was not killed, he struggled out from beneath the wreck
which had overwhelmed him. His first consideration, after he had assured
himself that he was comparatively uninjured, was for those who were his
fellow-passengers on this race to ruin and death; and perhaps it is not
strange that the fair young lady who had occupied the opposite seat in
the car came to his mind. Men and women were disengaging themselves from
the shapeless rubbish. Some wept, some groaned, and some were motionless
and silent.

He did not see the fair stranger among those who were struggling back to
consciousness. A portion of the top of the car lay near him, which he
raised up. It rested heavily upon the form of a maiden, which he at once
recognized by the dress to be that of the gentle stranger. The sight
roused all his energies; and he felt that strength which had fired his
muscles when he trod the field of battle. With desperate eagerness, he
raised the heavy fragment which was crowding out the young life of the
tender form, and bore it away, so that she was released from its cruel
pressure.

She, poor girl! felt it not; for her eyes were closed, and her marble
cheek was stained with blood. The young officer, tenderly interested in
her fate, bent over her, and raised the inanimate form. He bore it in his
arms to a green spot, away from the scattered fragments of the train, and
laid it gently down upon the bosom of mother earth. By all the means
within his power, he endeavored to convince himself that death had not
yet invaded the lovely temple of her being. But still she was silent and
motionless. There was not a sign by which he could determine the
momentous question.

He was unwilling to believe that the beautiful stranger was dead. It
seemed too hard and cruel that one so young and fair should be thus
rudely hurried out of existence, without a mother or even a father near
to receive her last gaze on earth, and listen to the soft sigh with which
she breathed forth her last throb of existence. He had a telescopic
drinking-cup in his pocket, with which he hastened to a brook that flowed
through the valley. Filling it with water, he returned to his charge. He
sprinkled her face, and rubbed her temples, and exerted himself to the
best of his knowledge and ability to awaken some signs of life.

The task seemed hopeless; and he was about to abandon it in despair, to
render assista