166 RONCY LE

Miss Fanny said not a word all this while. She was
really very pretty, though apparently quite unconscious
of it; and a troubled look in her dark blue eyes, as she
listened to her mother’s voluble story, gave me the im-
pression that she was aware that her respected parent
would have been much wiser to have gone quietly back to
England as fast as she could, instead of lingering to
affront the perils of precipices and Prussians. Mute as
she was, I soon settied in my own mind that the sense of
the family lay with the daughter. She did not pay me
the compliment of joining in the request for my assistance ;
perhaps she thought appealing to me more awful than
encountering the Germans ; perhaps she was thoroughly
disgusted with the whole affair; perhaps it was only that
she was in the habit of leaving all the talking to her
mother.

Of course I promised to do my best, and was rewarded
by a torrent of thanks from Mrs. Fortescue, who now
seemed to consider the matter as settled, and expatiated
much upon the forlorn situation of ladies travelling by
themselves, and the advantage of having a gen-
tleman with one, winding up by a delicate and pathetic
reminiscence of the happy days when she and Colonel
Fortescue used to travel together. N.B.—I have since
ascertained that the lamented Colonel never took her
farther than Folkestone, from whence he went on to
Baden-Baden—alone.

It isno doubt gratifying to be regarded in the light
of a Paladin protecting ladies in distress; but still as I
walked that evening into the town to smoke a quiet cigar,
I began to reflect that the position of a Paladin has its
disadvantages. Here was I pledged to go boldly up toa
German captain, to attack him at a moment when he
would infallibly be hot, and tired, and dusty, and fierce
with hunger, in the state when a man only desires to bolt
his supper, pull off his boots, and fling himself down to
sleep, without let or hindrance. And was I to cross his
path, and bar him from the room that was his by all the
laws of war? A haughty German “ Von,” too, I reflected,
who would probably consider me as a snob, and to whose
military ideas a newspaper correspondent was but a com-
bination of the two beings most obnoxious to him—a spy,
and a penny-a-liner. A newspaper artist might indeed
be a shade less hateful, but hardly more respectable.
Add to this that my German was small—enough indeed
to help me through the ordinary requirements of life, but
certainly not enough to explain Mrs. Fortescue’s woes ;
and it is no wonder if I felt rather hopeless as to the
result, and watched the fearful array of foemen that
invaded the little town next day with a heavy heart. As
I glanced from the window, I saw the crowd of fair-haired
warriors that seemed to choke up the inn-yard, and heard
the Hauptmann’s deep voice giving forth his orders.

It was actually on the landing that I and the little
French doctor, whom I had summoned from Mrs. For-
tescue’s room in order that the case might be duly
constaté by him, met our particular foe. I had meant
to catch him downstairs, but the doctor had been slow,
and the Hauptmann’s long strides had carried him up to
his chalked door faster than I had counted upon.

- There was nothing very remarkable about him—his
like might have been found in every regiment in the army.
A tall man—well over six foot, but so broad of chest and
shoulder that his height hardly told; brown-haired, red-
bearded, with pale grey eyes almost lost under their heavy

ae ee ee

CHATEAU.

eyelids; with somewhat rugged features, though gentle
in expression, as a large mastiff dog is gentle. He looked
at us with a slow steady gaze, evidently puzzled why we
did not let him pass at once, and his wonderment began
to deepen into anger, as it slowly dawned upon him that
our intention was to stop his course. Mustering my best
French, I plunged into the thick of the matter, appealed
to his chivalry, set forth the state of the case in the most
pathetic manner I could, attempted to flatter him by
hinting at the well-known courtesy and amiability of the
German character, and finally referred him to the doctor,
who, except for a slight elevation of his eyebrows when I
threw out my little compliments to the Teutonic virtues,
confirmed every thing I had said with great fluency. I
rather think his volubility fairly upset the temper of the
German, whose brow grew darker and darker, and who at
last cut him short with—“I see this room has been
allotted to me—that is enough ; if we listened to all the
remonstrances addressed to us, we should never get
either food or lodging.”

There was no answering this remark, which was a
sensible one, though tinged with the “ brutal frankness ”
characteristic of a great statesman of the same nation.
That Von Reimer hardly understood and still less believed
the story we were telling him was pretty plain, and I
confess myself that I thought it sounded rather absurd.
In the mood he was in, it was evidently no good arguing
with him: so we only looked at each other, as he coolly
turned the handle of thesdoor, and strode in, his sword
jarring against the floor at every step. ;

“Oh!” faintly gasped Mrs. Fortescue as the armed
apparition stalked in, “Do you know ——I thought they
had explained—Kennst du’—she began, hastily catching
at the first words of German that came to hand.

The Hauptmann stared blankly at being thus addressed’
in the second person. There was Mrs. Fortescue looking
as bewitching as ever, while she made this unfortunate
essay at a speech, which must have struck his ear either
asa deliberate insult, or as an expression of tender fa-
miliarity—both equally out of place. I fully expected to
hear her follow it wp by an inquiry as to the land where
the citrons grow, which was doubtless what was running
in her head; but happily she seemed to perceive the
solecism she had been guilty of, and murmuring “ Fanny
—you can speak German,” sank back into a graceful
reclining posture.

Miss Fanny, upon this, came forward and explained
the whole case in very good German, colouring with the
effort, but otherwise much more composed than the
Hauptmann, who was at once seized with overpowering
shyness, crept out, carefully gathering up his sword to
prevent its clattering, and, to my great relief, said that,
as they should not be here for long, he could share the
room next door with the lieutenant. In short, having
gone in like a lion, he came out like a lamb.

I.

Or course I rose greatly in the esteem of Mrs. Fortescue.
She only gently suggested that I might have announced
the Hauptmann; in answer to which, I pleaded that his
sudden introduction had impressed him much more than
a formal one would have done. It was not my business
to tell her that he had opened the door himself, and that