tments, the campbed, the iron washstand, and the rough
cuisine contrasted sadly with the magnificence of their father's
splendid mansion in Paris. No wonder our young heroines wept when
alone over the memories of the past.

Charles and Henry kept together; they avoided all society; they loved
to ramble along the beautiful beach that ran for some miles on the
north side of the town, and there, in floods of tears, seek relief
for their broken hearts. Oh! how memory will on these occasions
wake up the happy past lost and gone, and the wicked past yet to be
atoned for. What heart weighted with the agony of remorse will not
feel the sting of guilt more keen in the rememberance of the blissful
days of innocence and childhood? Many a blue wave has wrapt in its
icy shroud the child of misfortune who was unable to bear the shame
and reproof of her own conscience. It was in the recollection of
virtuous childhood that Charles and Henry felt their greatest sorrows.
Every tender admonition of their dying mother; the instruction of the
aged abbe who prepared them for their first confession and communion;
and the piety and noble example of their little brother, Louis Marie,
who had fled in his childhood from the world they now hated, were
subjects often brought up in their lonely rambles.

At night Charles would often awake with frightful dreams. The cold,
bloodstained face of her murdered father would come in awful proximity
to her. Her screams would bring her fellow-officers to her assistance,
but they knew not the cause of her terror. The young officers had
the sympathy of the whole garrison; even the people who saw them
return from their evening walk remarked them to be lonely and sad,
and their eyes often red from crying.

Three long and miserable months were thus passed by our heroines at
Messina. They were now as skilful in their military exercises as
they were in their disguise. But wearied of the military life, and
longing to return to the society of their sex, they had determined
to leave, to declare who they were, and endeavor, by some means, to
get back to France. Whilst deliberating on this movement an incident
occurred which changed their plans and cast them again into an
extraordinary circle of vicissitudes.

Chapter XX.

Naples.

Whilst Charles and Henry were one evening walking along the beautiful
beach they saw a ship nearing the land. A strong breeze was blowing
at the time, and whilst th