the rest of the men piling their arms, and vigorous efforts
were at once proceeded with for the restoration of the injured officer.

"The injury being slight, they were soon successful, and a mock drum-
head court-martial was then instituted, by which the male prisoner was
tried and convicted; sentence was passed, and the ruffianly band at once
proceeded jeeringly to carry it into execution. The unhappy lover was
stripped and firmly bound to a tree; the shrieking Isabel was then
dragged before him, and in her presence he was scourged to death with
the soldiers' belts. The miserable girl was then released, the troops
shouldered their arms and marched merrily away, safely reaching in due
time their barracks in Ajaccio.

"Meanwhile the day passed on; Count Robert returned to the chateau, and
as was his custom at once sought his daughter. Failing to find her, he
made inquiry among the servants, and then learned that the lovers had
left the domain some hours before. This intelligence made the count
somewhat uneasy, and remounting his horse, he set out in quest of the
truants upon the road which he learned they had taken. He penetrated
the forest for some distance, and at length was startled by hearing
shrill screams of maniacal laughter.

"Imagine if you can his horror and distress, when, on reaching the spot
from which the sounds proceeded, he discovered his daughter seated upon
the ground, with her dead lover's head upon her lap, uttering peal after
peal of blood-curdling laughter, as she strove to bind up the bruised
and lacerated body in strips of linen torn from her own clothing.

"On approaching her, the poor girl appeared to recognise her father in a
confused sort of way, and with a little difficulty he at length
persuaded her to allow him to lay the murdered man across the horse's
back, and to accompany him home.

"It was of course patent to the distracted count that a fiendish
atrocity of some sort had been committed, but it was quite impossible to
gather any particulars or even the most meagre hint from the poor
demented girl by his side; he therefore made the best of his way back to
the chateau, whence immediately upon his arrival he despatched a couple
of mounted servants--one of whom had charge of a note conveying a hint
of the catastrophe to the friends of the murdered man, while the other
had instructions to find and bring back with him to the chateau the
first medical man in Ajaccio. By nightfall th