d been
somewhat tremulous, that was plain from the irregularity of the script,
but he recognised it perfectly all the same.

As he regarded it he grew a shade paler.

He opened the letter, and his eyes remained riveted on the very first
line as if he were too astonished to proceed any further.

"Read on, General, I beg. Read it out aloud," murmured the youth; "we
shall see whether the iron will melt or not."

The General stared stiffly for a time at the young man, then he read the
letter through in silence, finally refolding it and thrusting it into
his breast-pocket.

Then he turned to the window, and remained for a long time in a brown
study.

Suddenly he turned once more towards the youth and said:

"Sir, devise some means whereby I may save this man. Find, I say, some
way or mode of salvation compatible with soldierly honour, and I will
pursue it."

The youth, surprised, overcome, rushed towards the General, seized his
muscular hand, and would certainly have kissed it had not the General
drawn it back.

Vertessy was very near losing his composure.

"Stay here!" said he. "There you have," pointing at Cornelia, "a
confederate who would also take the stronghold by assault. Deliberate
together, and devise some expedient. I leave you to yourselves."

And with that he quitted the room, leaving the young man alone with his
wife.

And when he had gone, when the door had closed to behind him, the figure
of the strange youth lost its soldierly bearing, and his limbs with a
painful spasm subsided into that picturesque pose in which artists
generally represent Niobe, or the Daughters of Sion mourning by the
willows of Babylon. Every trace of energy and vigour vanished from his
face, his eyelids closed over his tearful eyes, and his lips parted with
an expression of the deepest emotion. Once more he raised his
languishing head to show his strength of mind, but the effort was
useless. In the presence of a woman such affectation was no longer
possible, and when his eyes met those of Cornelia, he suddenly burst
into tears, fell sobbing on his knees before her, seized her hand,
pressed it convulsively to his breast, and trembling and gasping, said
to her in a voice full of agony:

"Oh, madame, by the tender mercies of God, I implore you to help me and
not forsake me."

Cornelia regarded him with wondering eyes, her shrewd intellect had
already deciphered the enigma, but her eyes still looked doubtful.

"Who are