strong body of soldiers,
who had assaulted the house where she was confined, and, after a
desperate conflict, had annihilated the guard that had been placed
over her.

Desmond laughed, as this story was told to him, when he entered
the room where the officers were gathered. The narrator concluded:

"As you have been to Versailles, Kennedy, doubtless you will have
heard all the latest particulars. Have you learnt who was the
officer, what regiment he belonged to, and how came he to have a
body of soldiers with him, outside the town? For they say that the
house where she was confined was a mile and a half beyond the
walls."

There was no longer any reason for concealment. The matter had
become public. The baron would certainly mention his name, and
indeed his visit to the palace, and the private audience given to
him and the baron, would assuredly have been noted.

"Your story is quite new to me," he said, "and is swollen, in the
telling, to undue proportions. The real facts of the case are by
no means so romantic. The truth of the story, by this time, is
generally known, as Mademoiselle Pointdexter and her father have
many friends at court. The affair happened to myself."

"To you, Kennedy?" was exclaimed, in astonishment, by all those
present.

"Exactly so," he said. "Nothing could have been more simple. The
evening before last I was, as usual, taking a walk and, the night
being fine, I passed beyond the gate. Presently, I heard a scream
and a woman's cry for help. None of you, gentlemen, could have
been insensible to such an appeal. Callaghan and I climbed over a
pretty high gate. Not knowing what force there might be in the
place, we occupied ourselves, at first, by unbarring and shooting
the lock of the gate. The bolts were stiff, and we made some noise
over it, which brought out five men. These we disposed of, after a
short fight, in which I got this graze on the cheek, and Callaghan
his sword wound in the shoulder."

"How did you dispose of them, Kennedy?" the colonel asked.

"I ran two of them through. Callaghan cut down one, and shot
another. The fifth man cried for mercy, and we simply tied him up.

"We then found Mademoiselle Pointdexter, and, learning from her
that the carriage in which she had been brought there was, with
its horses, still in the stable, we got it out, harnessed the
horses, and put an old woman who was mademoiselle's attendant in
the carriage with her. Mike took the reins, I mou