g as usual, but with folded arms,
repeating word by word the brief sentence.

It was midnight. All was still and silent through the house; no servant
stirred, and the very wind was hushed to a perfect calm. I was sitting
in my library, when the words I have repeated seemed spoken in a low,
clear voice beside me. I started up: the perspiration broke over my
forehead and fell upon my cheek with terror; for I knew I was alone, and
the fearful thought flashed on me,--this may be madness! For a second or
two the agony of the idea was almost insupportable. Then came a resolve
as sudden. I opened my desk, and took from it all the ready money I
possessed; I wrote a few hurried lines to my agent; and then, making my
way noiselessly to the stable, I saddled my horse and led him out.

In two hours I was nearly twenty miles on my way to Dublin. Day was
breaking as I entered the capital. I made no delay there; but taking
fresh horses, started for Skerries, where I knew the fishermen of the
coast resorted.

"One hundred pounds to the man who will land me on the coast of France
or Holland," said I to a group that were preparing their nets on the
shore.

A look of incredulity was the only reply. A very few words, however,
settled the bargain. Ere half an hour I was on board. The wind
freshened, and we stood out to sea.

"Let the breeze keep to this," said the skipper, "and we'll make the
voyage quickly."

Both wind and tide were in our favor. We held down Channel rapidly; and
I saw the blue hills grow fainter and fainter, till the eye could but
detect a gray cloud on the horizon, which at last disappeared in the
bright sun of noon, and a wide waste of blue water lay on every side.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE LAST CAMPAIGN

The snow, half melted with the heavy rains, lay still deeply on the
roads, and a dark, lowering sky stretched above, as I harried onwards,
with all the speed I could, towards the east of France.

Already the Allies had passed the Rhine. Schwartzen-berg in the south,
Blucher in the east, and Bernadotte on the Flemish frontier, were
conveying their vast armies to bear down on him whom singly none had
dared to encounter. All France was in arms, and every step was turned
eastwards. Immense troops of conscripts, many scarce of the age of
boyhood, crowded the highways. The veterans themselves were enrolled
once more, and formed battalions for the defence of their native
land. Every town and village was a garrison.