a man. My
daughters do right to defend this place, which you, false and
ungrateful, have betrayed. Attempt nothing farther; for we are not
afraid to die!"

"Go in, boys!" shouted Lysander, himself shrinking aside to let the
soldiers pass.

Salina fired the pistol--not at the soldiers.

"She has shot me!" said Lysander, staggering back. "Kill the fiend! kill
her!"

Instantly two bayonets darted at her breast. One of them was struck down
by Virginia's axe, which half severed the soldier's wrist. But before
the axe could rise and descend again, the other bayonet had done its
work; and the soldiers rushed in.

It was all over in a minute. The axe was seized and wrenched violently
away. Toby lay senseless on the rocks without. Lysander was leaning
dizzily, clutching at the ledge, a ghastly whiteness settling about the
gay mustache, and a strange glassiness dimming his eyes. The soldiers
had possession. Virginia was a prisoner, and her father; but not Salina.
There was the body which had been hers, transfixed by the bayonet, and
fallen upon the ground: that was palpable: but who shall capture the
escaping soul?

When Penn and his companions arrived, not a living person was there; but
alone, stretched upon the cold stone floor, where the gray light from
the entrance fell,--pulseless, pallid, with pale hands crossed
peacefully on her breast, hiding the wound, and features faintly smiling
in their stony calm,--lay the corpse of her that was Salina. The fair
cup that had brimmed with the bitterness of life was shattered. The soul
that drank thereat had fled away in haughtiness and scorn.

Toby, groaning on the stones outside, felt somebody shaking him, and
heard the voice of Carl asking how he was.

"Dunno'; sort o' common," said the old negro, trying to rise.

He knew nothing of what had happened, except that he had been fallen
upon and beaten down: for the rest, it was useless to question him: not
even Penn's agonies of doubt and fear could rouse his recollection.

* * * * *

Lieutenant-colonel Bythewood had committed the error of an officer green
in his profession. The cave surprised, and the prisoners taken, the men
retired in all haste, simply because they had received no orders to the
contrary. Thus no advantage whatever was taken of the very important
position which had been gained.

Leaving the dead behind, and carrying off the wounded and the prisoners,
the sergeant, upon w