Faithful Margaret

of Virginia, stole a gray-faced man; panting, hunger-smitten, weary; starting at every crash of the rotte

th his nose upon the ground, and his eyes fla

d, and this dog which he held in chains was guiding him foot by foot al

limbs trembled and his haggard face blackened when the blood-hound wavered in his steady run, and sniffed about uneasily f

osom; and the cruel lips ever were sneering out their fell design; and t

ngton with dispatches, and was on hi

oming up with him in these pathless forests, if he t

ued that St. Udo, weary with nights and days of ceaseless exertion, ordered a

ot, were overjoyed to throw themselves beside him, and so

slight skirmish, in which but

ords of cheer with a faint and hopeless smile, when a shadow fell across the sweet, dying face, and a

s white with horror, her shapely hands clasped in anguish; her snaky tresses lying lo

e she from, who had lain ento

spirit of pity and grief, weepin

madam!" burst fr

he boy, and lifted it in mute anguish to the colonel's. S

u think?" whispered

er voice, the dark eyes opened on her lovely count

, I am dying," m

tones, "must you go? I loved you so dearly, too-m

did not treat

was to blame when he deserted us both, my poor boy. How could I fight against

n my knees to let me call you mother. From place to place you have led me, keeping me at a dist

n her arms and kissed him many ti

aned she, "when I sent you North expressly for saf

," said the ca

g eyes to St. Udo Brand. They recognized him now, and gre

ape who calls himself Colonel Ca

"He has played the traitor to the

d us for eighteen years, and now my boy is dying. He threw me back among the flames three months ago in

ng to find Colonel Calembours?" i

flames which destroyed my only home. I hear that Monsieur Estvan was killed, and I searched in every hospital in Richmond, and e

boy and kissed his cold

he shed for a breath of Heaven's pure air; the despair, the misery beh

, and in a moment a Confederate officer

familiar voice. "Well met, my colonel. P

smounting from a magnificent war-ho

lain!" shouted St

el Brand. Madam Estvan glided out, and pu

hispered the w

d at the sweet young face, sealed with th

s, look at your so

s fair, smiling dead bore his own sin-coars

ime to light upon that beautiful face, a random ball struck him down at her feet. Like a b

k beside her dead, and the dark blood of her perfidious husband oozed onto her dain

her still there, with the senseless man's head in her l

almly. "I have snatched him back

perfidy as his?" asked

rning. "I will forget his indifference to me, his injustice to this dead boy. I will

rds, "I love him!" How God-like was the forg

unfortunate comrade's lips, and in time had t

St. Udo, "look up and sp

, and strove to see her throu

r the third time? Ah, don't break my heart! My poor Edgar is dead, and I hav

reast, she clung to hi

orgot his pain and his capture, in rage at such a

mbours for her husband Ladislaus. Excellent! nom de Dieu! most excellent. Sweet madam, your troubles

m with a gas

and stood off, a dark s

voice. "Traitor, renegade-spy! You are not worthy of a

nd threw herself upon the prostrate rasca

e miscreant shall expiate his villai

er life's curse, she galloped back with her attendants, to watch over her dead boy,

to paint in this series of

the

der a rising moon eclipsed by drifting clouds,

hoping to encounter friends, but in the g

yours?" demanded

pause, brief

tiously returned the

nt," said

ame, take it! Fire!"

y revealed every face, and then the front ranks

ted the Confe

Udo's handful, and again the brave Vermont

the foe pressed close, and a chance shot killed his horse, and a flying pursuer dealt the rider a stu

th his head upon the neck of his pulseless horse, he heard a rustle in the dewy leaves, and footsteps soft and sure app

es gleamed like chysolites, and it led, step by step, the

moniac eagerness, and plunged the dastardly dagger hilt-deep int

dews dripped upon the slain-for "the dearest tears whi