I only beg, Monsieur le Capitaine, that
when you are well enough to go abroad again, whether in the town or in
the country, or in whatever part of Europe you may travel, you will have
the kindness to state positively, most positively, that Juliet
Donnertronk, _nee_ Ventrebleu, has not taken, and never will take, any
vows whatever!"

"Not even those of marriage, Juliet?" asked I.

She laughed, and patted my burning head, with "_Ah, vous etes bien bon!
Ah, moqueur Anglais!_" finishing with all the pantomine of blushing
confusion, and starting away like a fluttered pigeon.

As soon as I felt able to move, which was not till some days after, my
first effort was to reach the mansion in which Clotilde resided. But
there I received the intelligence, that on the evening of the day of my
first and last visit, she had left the town with the superior of the
convent. She had made such urgent entreaties to the governor to be
permitted to leave Valenciennes, that he had obtained a passport for her
from the general commanding the trenches; and not only for her, but also
for the nuns--the burning of whose convent had left them houseless.

Painful as it was thus to lose her, it was in some degree a relief to
find that she was under the protection of her relative; and when I saw,
from day to day, the ravage that was committed by the tremendous weight
of fire, I almost rejoiced that she was no longer exposed to its perils.

But it was my fate, or perhaps my good fortune, never to be suffered to
brood long over my own calamities. My life was spent in the midst of
tumults, which, if they did not extinguish--and what could
extinguish?--the sense of such mental trials, at least prevented the
echo of my complaints from returning to my ears. Before the midnight of
that very day in which I had flung myself on my couch with almost total
indifference as to my ever resting on another, the whole city was
alarmed by the intelligence that the besiegers were evidently preparing
for an assault. I listened undisturbed. Even this could scarcely add to
the horrors in which the inhabitants lived from hour to hour; and to me
it was the hope of a rescue, unless I should be struck by some of the
shells, which now were perpetually bursting in the streets, or should
even fall a victim to the wrath of the incensed garrison. But an order
came suddenly to the officer in charge of the hospital, to send all the
patients into the vaults, and throw all the beds on