se to take, nor how to escape from my
dilemma.

"I say, Lieutenant," said D'Ervan, after a pause of some minutes, during
which he had never ceased to regard me with a fixed, steady stare, "you
are about as unlike the usual character of your countrymen as one can
well conceive."

"How so?" said I, half smiling at the remark.

"All the Irishmen I have ever seen," replied he,--"and I have known
some scores of them,--were bold, dashing, intrepid fellows, that cared
nothing for an enterprise if danger had no share in it; who loved a
difficulty as other men love safety; who had an instinct for where their
own reckless courage would give them an advantage over all others; and
took life easily, under the conviction that, every day could present the
circumstance where a ready wit and a stout heart could make the way to
fortune. Such were the Irish I knew in the brigade; and though not a
man of the number had ever seen what they called the Green Island, they
were as unlike the English, or French, or Germans, or any other people,
as--as the old Court of Louis the Fourteenth was unlike the guardroom
style of reception that goes on nowadays yonder."

"What you say may be just," said I, coolly; "and if I seem to have few
features of that headlong spirit which is the gift of my nation, the
circumstances of my boyhood could well explain, perhaps excuse them.
From my earliest years I have had to struggle against ills that many
men in a long lifetime do not meet with. If suspicion and distrust have
crept or stolen into my heart, it is from, watching the conduct of
those I deemed high-spirited and honorable, and seeing them weak and,
vacillating and faithless. And lastly, if every early hope that stirred
my heart does but wane and pale within me, as stars go out when day is
near, you cannot wonder that I, who stand alone here, without home or
friend, should feel a throb of fear at aught which may tarnish a name
that has yet no memory of past services to rely upon. And if you knew
how sorely such emotions war against the spirit that lives here, believe
me you had never made the reproach; my punishment is enough already."

"Forgive me, my dear boy, if I said anything that could wound you for a
moment," said the abbe. "This costume of mine, they say, gives a
woman's privilege, and truly I believe it does something of the sex's
impertinence also.. I ought to have known you better; and I do know you
better by this time. And now let me pre