s sword, breathing, as it were, after a severe conflict, caught
Cloudesley's eyes. Intoxicated with victory, Cloudesley sprang from his
horse, and raising his ax, rushed up the stairs upon the youth!

Edith sprang and threw herself before the stripling, impulsively
clasping her arms around him to shield him, and then throwing up one arm
to ward off a blow, looked up and exclaimed:

"He is my preserver--my preserver, Cloudesley!"

And what did the young ensign do? Clasped Edith quietly but closely to
his breast.

It was a beautiful, beautiful picture!

Nay, any one might understand how it was--that not years upon years of
ordinary acquaintance could have so drawn, so knitted these young hearts
together as those few hours of supreme danger.

"My preserver, Cloudesley! My preserver!"

Cloudesley grounded his ax.

"I don't understand that, Edith! He is a British officer."

"He is my deliverer! When Thorg set his men on me to hunt me, he cast
himself before me, and kept them at bay until you came!"

"Mutinied!" exclaimed Cloudesley, in astonishment, and a sort of horror.

"Yes, I suppose it was mutiny," said the young ensign, speaking for the
first time and blushing as he withdrew his arm from Edith's waist.

"Whe-ew! here's a go!" Cloudesley was about to exclaim, but remembering
himself he amended his phraseology, and said, "A very embarrassing
situation, yours, sir."

"I cannot regret it!"

"Certainly not! There are laws of God and humanity above all military
law, and such you obeyed, sir! I thank you on the part of my young
countrywoman," said Cloudesley, who imagined that he could talk about as
well as he could fight.

"If the occasion could recur, I would do it again! Yes, a thousand
times!" the young man's eyes added to Edith--only to her.

"But oh! perdition! while I am talking here that serpent! that
copperhead! that cobra capella! is coming round again! How astonishingly
tenacious of life all foul, venomous creatures are!" exclaimed
Cloudesley, as he happened to espy Throg moving slightly where he lay,
and rushed out to dispatch him.

The other two young people were left alone in the hall.

"I am afraid you have placed yourself in a very, very dangerous
situation, by what you did to save me."

"But do you know--oh, do you know how happy it has made me? Can you
divine how my heart--yes, my soul--burns with the joy it has given me?
When I saw you standing there before your enemies so beautiful!