m a hearty greeting.

"You are a perfect paladin, Kennedy," O'Neil said; "and, though we
are all proud of you, we cannot help feeling a little envious that
such adventures have all fallen to the lot of our junior ensign.
It is evident that, if you were not born with a silver spoon in
your mouth, fortune determined to make up in other ways, by giving
you such chances as do not fall to the lot of anyone else."

"Yes, I think I have every right to consider myself exceptionally
fortunate."

"You may have been fortunate, Kennedy," O'Sullivan remarked. "The
thing is, that you took advantage of the opportunities. You threw
yourself into the first adventure that came your way, rescued a
lovely damsel in distress, and her gratitude and that of her
father attracted the king's notice, and gained that ring on your
finger. In the next place, after escaping from the ruffians who
attacked the coach--principally, as it seems, by cutting down
their leader, and so occupying the attention of his followers--you
instantly took the resolution to attempt to rescue him and his
daughter, and succeeded in doing so. Another man might have
stopped at Moulins, congratulating himself that he had escaped
from the trap, and lamenting that he could do nothing towards
again rescuing this damsel from her abductors. Of course, it was a
piece of good fortune, meeting de la Vallee's men at Roanne; but I
have no doubt that, if you had not done so, you would still have
got to Pointdexter, gathered a force, and intercepted the
vicomte's party."

"It would have been a very near thing, O'Sullivan. Changing horse
at every post, I might have got to Pointdexter from Roanne in
twenty-four hours; but I doubt whether, even allowing that no time
was lost in getting the men together, I could have got to Tulle
before them. They had but one hundred and fifty miles to travel, I
should have had still farther; and, as they would have had three
days' start, they should have been there before me; for I heard
from the baron that, in addition to the four horses in the coach,
they had four others, ridden by troopers, fastened to it where the
road was bad."

"What would you have done if they had got to the vicomte's
chateau--it is, I believe, a strong place--before you could
intercept them?"

"I cannot say what I should have done. I thought the matter over
and over again as we rode. It seemed absurd to think of attacking
a chateau with only twelve men; and besides, it wo