rength to conquer.

"I--I accept your words in the same spirit with which they are
offered," I stammered, hardly aware of what I said. "They are of
greatest worth to me."

I bowed low above the white hand resting so confidingly within mine,
anxious to escape from the room before my love gave utterance to some
foolish speech. Yet even as I turned hastily toward the door, I paused
with a final question.

"The negro who guided me here, Madame; is he one in whom I may repose
confidence?"

"In all things," she answered gravely. "He has been with the De Noyan
family from a child, and is devoted to his master."

"Then I take him with me for use should I chance to require a
messenger."

With a swift backward glance into her earnest dark eyes, an indulgence
I could not deny myself, I bowed my way forth from the room, and
discovering Alphonse upon the porch, where he evidently felt himself on
guard, and bidding him it was the will of his mistress that he follow,
I flung my rifle across my shoulder, and strode straight ahead until I
came out upon the river bank. Turning to the right I worked my way
rapidly up the stream, passing numerous groups of lounging soldiers,
who made little effort to bar my passage, beyond some idle chaffing,
until I found myself opposite the anchorage of the Spanish fleet.

In the character of an unsophisticated frontiersman, I felt no danger
in joining others of my class, lounging listlessly about in small
groups discussing the situation, and gazing with awe upon those strange
ships of war, swinging by their cables in the broad stream. It was a
motley crew among whom I foregathered, one to awaken interest at any
other time--French _voyageurs_ from the far-off Illinois country, as
barbarian in dress and actions as the native denizens of those northern
plains, commingling freely with Creole hunters freshly arrived from the
bayous of the swamp lands; sunburnt fishermen from the sandy beaches of
Barataria, long-haired flatboat-men, their northern skin faintly
visible through the tan and dirt acquired in the long voyage from the
upper Ohio; here and there some stolid Indian brave, resplendent in
paint and feathers, and not a few drunken soldiers temporarily escaped
from their commands. Yet I gave these little thought, except to push
my way through them to where I could obtain unobstructed view of the
great ships.

The largest of these, a grim monster to my eyes, with bulging sides
towering hi