ten the days when our hearts throbbed
together, and when the whole great world seemed so small a thing beside
the love which burned in our veins. Or perhaps it may not be so. Perhaps
she has not forgotten.

There may still be times when the peace of the cloister is broken by the
memory of the old soldier who loved her in those distant days. Youth
is past and passion is gone, but the soul of the gentleman can never
change, and still Etienne Gerard would bow his grey head before her and
would very gladly lose his other ear if he might do her a service.

II. How the Brigadier Captured Saragossa

Have I ever told you, my friends, the circumstances connected with my
joining the Hussars of Conflans at the time of the siege of Saragossa
and the very remarkable exploit which I performed in connection with the
taking of that city? No? Then you have indeed something still to learn.
I will tell it to you exactly as it occurred. Save for two or three men
and a score or two of women, you are the first who have ever heard the
story.

You must know, then, that it was in the Second Hussars--called the
Hussars of Chamberan--that I had served as a lieutenant and as a junior
captain. At the time I speak of I was only twenty-five years of age, as
reckless and desperate a man as any in that great army.

It chanced that the war had come to a halt in Germany, while it was
still raging in Spain, so the Emperor, wishing to reinforce the Spanish
army, transferred me as senior captain to the Hussars of Conflans, which
were at that time in the Fifth Army Corps under Marshal Lannes.

It was a long journey from Berlin to the Pyrenees.

My new regiment formed part of the force which, under Marshal Lannes,
was then besieging the Spanish town of Saragossa. I turned my horse's
head in that direction, therefore, and behold me a week or so later
at the French headquarters, whence I was directed to the camp of the
Hussars of Conflans.

You have read, no doubt, of this famous siege of Saragossa, and I will
only say that no general could have had a harder task than that with
which Marshal Lannes was confronted. The immense city was crowded with
a horde of Spaniards--soldiers, peasants, priests--all filled with the
most furious hatred of the French, and the most savage determination to
perish before they would surrender. There were eighty thousand men in
the town and only thirty thousand to besiege them. Yet we had a powerful
artillery, and our