ontained a tightly rolled slip of oiled paper. The
cartridge was a dummy, a wee strong box for some vital document.

It was not for scruples against looking that she paused. On the
contrary, it was that she must look, absolutely, in sacred, patriotic
duty bound, that finally decided--nay, compelled her to look. Still she
hesitated before drawing out the paper. She dreaded what it might tell
her. Concealed thus, and revealed only by a hazard, the paper held, she
felt certain, the secret and the significance of the American's errand
to Mexico. And she did not want to know. She reviled bitterly the cruel
chance that had thrust it on her.

She read. The paper was a communication addressed to the Emperor
Maximilian by the Confederate generals of the Trans-Mississippi
department. Foreseeing Lee's surrender, they had gathered from
Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, at a place in the latter state named
Marshall, and there they had decided that they would not surrender. They
would seek homes and a country elsewhere, swords in hand. At this
meeting, which had been inspired by Gen. Joe Shelby, they had deposed
the cautious general commanding, Kirby Smith, and they had put in his
stead Simon Bolivar Buckner. The Trans-Mississippi department numbered
fifty thousand men. There would also be fugitives from Lee's and
Johnson's corps, besides Jefferson Davis in person, should he contrive
to pass the Federal lines. Many thousands of veterans would shortly be
marching across the Rio Grande. In Texas, at the Confederate arsenals
and depositories, they would seize what they needed: guns, ammunition,
horses, provisions, money. In Mexico they would become citizens, and
they would defend their new homes against outlawry, rebellion, or
invasion. The signatory generals prayed the Emperor Maximilian to
consider this, and "to do it quick."

Jacqueline put the letter back in the cartridge, and everything looked
as before. But no genii, once out, can ever quite be bottled up again.
That stray bullet had wounded her to the heart.

"As bad as fifty thousand!" she cried half aloud. "And they will become
citizens, too--Mon Dieu, _that_ is a nation!"

With them Maximilian would have a people behind him, and his throne
would be as a rock. He could, and most certainly would, disdain the
French army of occupation with its thirty thousand bayonets. The French
might go back home. He would speed them cheerfully, and henceforth be
Emperor in fact.

"But our