had long been strangers to
their sight, and of an order they had little deemed to find in Ellen
Halloway, it was but the involuntary tribute rendered by nature unto
beauty. The depth and sacredness of that sorrow, which had left the
wretched woman unconscious of her exposure, in the instant afterwards
imposed a check upon admiration, which each felt to be a violation of
the first principles of human delicacy, and the feeling was repressed
almost in the moment that gave it birth.

They were immediately in front of the room occupied by Charles de
Haldimar, in the piazza of which were a few old chairs, on which the
officers were in the habit of throwing themselves during the heat of
the day. On one of these Captain Blessington, assisted by the officer
of grenadiers, now seated the suffering and sobbing wife of Halloway.
His first care was to repair the disorder of her dress; and never was
the same office performed by man with greater delicacy, or absence of
levity by those who witnessed it. This was the first moment of her
consciousness. The inviolability of modesty for a moment rose paramount
even to the desolation of her heart, and putting rudely aside the hand
that reposed unavoidably upon her person, the poor woman started from
her seat, and looked wildly about her, as if endeavouring to identify
those by whom she was surrounded. But when she observed the pitying
gaze of the officers fixed upon her, in earnestness and commiseration,
and heard the benevolent accents of the ever kind Blessington exhorting
her to composure, her weeping became more violent, and her sobs more
convulsive. Captain Blessington threw an arm round her waist to prevent
her from falling; and then motioning to two or three women of the
company to which her husband was attached, who stood at a little
distance, in front of one of the block-houses, prepared to deliver her
over to their charge.

"No, no, not yet!" burst at length from the lips of the agonised woman,
as she shrank from the rude but well-intentioned touch of the
sympathising assistants, who had promptly answered the signal; then, as
if obeying some new direction of her feelings, some new impulse of her
grief, she liberated herself from the slight grasp of Captain
Blessington, turned suddenly round, and, before any one could
anticipate the movement, entered an opening on the piazza, raised the
latch of a door situated at its extremity, and was, in the next
instant, in the apartment of t