. I sat at the window, looking out
upon the gardens, the lake, all bathed in the mellow moonlight of a
May night. And I saw certain things by "the moonlight of memory." So
Francezka's wild heart had found rest at last, and it rejoiced me. But
deep in my own heart was the sense of loss--the loss of those dreams
wherein Francezka was mine. One often suffers more from the loss of
the ideal than the real. And feeling this, I fell asleep, sitting at
the open window, and had the loveliest dream I had yet had of
Francezka. When I awakened, the moon had gone down, the air had turned
chill and I was oppressed with that strange feeling which comes from
physical discomfort when one is asleep. A light glowed from
Francezka's window, and I saw her graceful figure bending over her
writing table. She wore a white negligee of some sort, and her long
dark hair flowed free. She had probably risen from her bed to add
something to the packet she was preparing for Gaston. Soon her light
was put out, and tough soldier though I am, I was glad to get into the
great, soft bed provided for me.

I was to start at sunrise, and when my horse was led out next morning,
Francezka was down to bid me good by. She gave me a thick packet for
Gaston, saying:

"Tell him I am well, and as happy as ever I can be, away from him. And
that to see you, Babache, was as good as medicine to the sick. Do not
forget that, I charge you."

When I parted from her, she wore a smile of happy expectancy--a look
of jocund hope was in her dewy eyes. I never saw that expression again
on the face of Francezka Capello.

CHAPTER XXI

THE SERVICE OF A FRIEND

I joined Count Saxe at Brussels. I had only been away from him
thirty-six hours, but when I presented myself before him he clasped me
in his arms and cried:

"Babache, I am nine times as glad to see you as the Duke of Berwick
was to see me, the time he told me he would rather see me than the
reinforcement of three thousand men he had asked for!"

Was it strange I loved this man?

On reaching Strasburg, my first inquiry was for Gaston Cheverny; and
to my great joy, I found he had returned. It had been determined by
the Duke of Berwick to send Count Saxe's regiment, with certain
others, to Hueningen, a good day and a half's march from Strasburg, and
Gaston Cheverny, with other officers, was at Hueningen already.

When we rode into town, the night had fallen. We found without trouble
the house where our off