st
night, and who the visitor had been.

'Fall in, men,' commanded the leader, winking at the next in command;
'form a shooting party.'

Soldiers were rough and cruel in those times, especially in time of war,
and poor Rudel fully believed he was going to be shot. He watched the
preparations with fascinated eyes, and allowed himself to be placed in
position against a low stone wall. Then he burst into tears.

'Once more--will you tell?'

Rudel did not answer, but shut his eyes and began rapidly to repeat the
Lord's Prayer. The leader glanced round with a grim smile, and the men
clicked the locks of their muskets. Then fear overcame the poor little
fellow, and he sank down in a heap on the ground.

Meanwhile, in the cave, which was quite close, Lisbeth had heard all.
She began to struggle, and uttered a stifled scream. The man released
her, and, to her surprise, gently touched her flaxen hair.

'Fear nothing, little one,' he said, and taking her hand, went with her
out of the cave, and walked straight up to the soldiers.

'I may be a spy and a deserter,' he said loudly to the leader, 'but I am
not a brute as you are.' And he struck the officer a violent blow in the
face.

'Take that!' he said, 'and shoot me as soon as you like. I am worth
something when I can call that brave boy my son.'

The soldiers surrounded and seized him, and when Rudel came to his
senses he found them already gone, and his grandfather lifting him into
his arms and preparing to carry him home.

The next morning both children were punished for disobedience. Rudel
thought this very cruel, and years afterwards, when for the first time
he dared to ask about his father, he asked his grandfather why he had
done so.

'To make you forget all you had gone through,' answered the old man,
smiling, 'and only remember the beating. Besides, you had disobeyed me!'

Rudel never saw his father again, for when the deserter had undergone a
long imprisonment for his offence, and was free again, he was ordered to
leave the country for ever; and Rudel and Lisbeth stayed on with their
grandparents.

[Illustration: "'I am worth something when I can call that brave boy my
son.'"]

[Illustration: "A horseman galloped to the spot in the hope of finding
them still alive."]

CRUISERS IN THE CLOUDS.

IV.--THE FIRST CATASTROPHE.

The Countess of Villeroy was a very old French lady who was strongly
inclined to think that people were wrong in supposi