t. With a loud cry she called upon his name. He answered from the
wood, and dashed towards her just as she sank fainting to the ground.
Leon was gone.

"As soon as returning strength permitted, she told her brother the
fearful story of the steward; but bound him by every entreaty not to
bring himself in contact with a monster so depraved. When they reached
the chateau, they learned that Guichard had been there and left it
again. And from that hour they saw him no more.

"I must now conclude in a few words; and, to do so, may mention, that
in the year '99 I became the purchaser of Haut Rochefort at a sale of
forfeited estates, it having been bought by Government on some previous
occasion, but from whom and how, I never heard. The story I have told I
learned from the notaire of Hubane, the village in the neighborhood, who
was conversant with all its details, and knew well the several actors in
it, as well as their future fortunes.

"The brother became a distinguished officer, and rose to some rank in
the service; but embarking in the expedition to Ireland, was reported
to Bonaparte as having betrayed the French cause. The result was, he
was struck off the list of the army, and pronounced degraded. He died in
some unknown place.

"The sister became attached to her cousin, but the brother opposing
the union, she was taken away to Paris. The lover returned to Bretagne,
where, having heard a false report of her marriage at Court, he assumed
holy orders; and being subsequently charged--but it is now believed
falsely--of corresponding with the Bourbons, was shot in his own garden
by a platoon of infantry. But how is this? Are you ill? Has my story so
affected you?"

"That brother was my friend,--my dearest, my only friend, Charles de
Meudon!"

"What! and did you know poor Charles?"

But I could not speak; the tears ran fast down my cheeks as I thought of
all his sorrows,--sorrows far greater than ever he had told me.

"Poor Marie!" said the general, as he wiped a tear from his eye; "few
have met such an enemy as she did. Every misfortune of her life has
sprung from one hand: her brother's, her lover's death, were both his
acts."

"Laon Guichard! And who is he? or how could he have done these things?"

"Methinks you might yourself reply to your own question."

"I! How could that be? I know him not."

"Yes, but you do. Laon Guichard is Mehee de la Touche!"

Had a thunderbolt fallen between us I could not have felt