father's death, told in her own
unpretending words, and addressed to one whom she recognized as the head
of her house. She dwelt with gratitude on the old Count's kindness, and
said how often her father had recurred to the thought of his protection
and guidance to Frank, when the time should come that would leave him
fatherless. It seemed as if up to this point she had written calmly and
collectedly, expressing herself in respectful distance to one so much
above her. No sooner, however, had she penned Frank's name, than all
this reserve gave way before the gushing torrent of her feelings, and
she proceeded:----

"And oh! sir, is not the hour come when that protection is
needed? Is not my poor brother a prisoner, charged with a
terrible offence--no less than treason to his Emperor? You,
who are yourself a great soldier, can say if such is like to
be the crime of one well born, generous, and noble as Frank,
whose heart ever overflowed to all who served him, and who,
in all the reckless buoyancy of youth, never forgot his
honor. Crafty and designing men--if such there may have been
around him--might possibly have thrown their snares over
him; but no persuasion nor seductions could have made him a
traitor. 'See what the Kaiser has made Count Stephen!' were
some of the last lines he ever wrote to me, 'and, perhaps,
one day, another Dalton will stand as high in the favor of
his master.' His whole heart and soul were in his soldier
life. You, sir, were his guide-star, and, thinking of you,
how could he have dreamed of disloyalty? They tell me that
in troubled times like these, when many have faltered in
their allegiance, such accusations are rarely well inquired
into, and that courts-martial deal peremptorily with the
prisoners; but you will not suffer mv brother to be thus
tried and judged. You will remember that he is a stranger
in that land, an orphan, a mere boy, too; friendless,--no,
no, not friendless, forgive me the ungracious word; he who
bears your name, and carries in his veins your blood, cannot
be called friendless.. you will say, perhaps, how defend
him?--how reply to charges which will be made with all the
force of witness and circumstance? I answer, hear his own
story of himself; he never told a lie--remember that, Count-
-from his infancy upwards! we, who lived w