ered, in a voice low and tremulous from
agitation,--"You know, Kate, that I only left the ranks a couple of days
ago. I can tell then, better than all these great folk, what soldiers
think and say; they are not as they used to be. Lead them against the
Frenchman, and they will fight as they have ever fought; but if it be
to fire on their own townsfolk,--to charge through streets where they
lounged along, hand-in-hand with the people, like brothers,--they will
not do it."

"This is very alarming, Frank. Have you told the Count?"

"No; nor would I for worlds. What! betray my comrades, and be called
on before a court-martial to say who said this, and what man said t'
other?"

"But could you not, at least, give him some warning?"

"And be ordered from his presence for the presumption, or told that I
was a rebel at heart, or such tidings had never been uttered by me. The
old Feld would as soon believe that this earth was cut adrift to wander
at hazard through all space, as that treason should lurk behind an
Austrian uniform. It would be an evil hour for him who should dare to
tell him so."

"Oh, Frank, how terrible is all this!"

"And yet do I not despair; nay, Kate, but I am even more hopeful for
it; and, as Walstein says, if the Empire halt so long behind the rest of
Europe, she must one day or other take a race to come up with it."

"And is Walstein a----a----" She stopped.

"No; he's very far from a Democrat or a Republican. He 's too well born
and too rich and too good-looking to be anything but a Monarchist. Oh,
if you but saw him! But, hark! there are the trumpets! Here come the
'Wurtem-burgs;' and there's my charger, Kate. Is he not splendid? A
Banat horse, all bone and sinew."

"How I should like to have been a man and a soldier!" said she, blushing
deeply.

"There, that's Walstein,----that's he with the scarlet dolman!" cried
Frank. "But he 's coming over,----he sees us. No, he's passing on. Did
you see him, Kate?--did you remark him?"

"No, Frank dearest; I see nothing but you, my own fond brother." And she
fell upon his neck, weeping.

"Herr Lieutenant!" said a hussar, with his hand to his cap.

"Yes, I 'm ready,--I 'm coming," cried Frank. And with one long, last
embrace he tore himself away, springing down the stairs in mad haste.

"Madame de Heidendorf is good enough to say she will come and see the
troops defile from the Glacis," said the Archduke to Kate, as, still
overwhelmed with sorrow,