even the time when the chief had addressed me, I had heard a low,
monotonous sound, far away indeed, and yet coming nearer at every
instant. At first it was but a murmur, a rumble, but by the time he had
finished speaking, while the assassins were untying my ankles in order
to lead me to the scene of my murder, I heard, as plainly as ever I
heard anything in my life, the clinking of horseshoes and the jingling
of bridle-chains, with the clank of sabres against stirrup-irons. Is it
likely that I, who had lived with the light cavalry since the first hair
shaded my lip, would mistake the sound of troopers on the march?

'Help, comrades, help!' I shrieked, and though they struck me across
the mouth and tried to drag me up to the trees, I kept on yelling, 'Help
me, my brave boys! Help me, my children! They are murdering your
colonel!'

For the moment my wounds and my troubles had brought on a delirium, and
I looked for nothing less than my five hundred hussars, kettle-drums and
all, to appear at the opening of the glade.

But that which really appeared was very different to anything which I
had conceived. Into the clear space there came galloping a fine young
man upon a most beautiful roan horse. He was fresh-faced and
pleasant-looking, with the most debonair bearing in the world and the
most gallant way of carrying himself--a way which reminded me somewhat
of my own. He wore a singular coat which had once been red all over, but
which was now stained to the colour of a withered oak-leaf wherever the
weather could reach it. His shoulder-straps, however, were of golden
lace, and he had a bright metal helmet upon his head, with a coquettish
white plume upon one side of its crest. He trotted his horse up the
glade, while behind him rode four cavaliers in the same dress--all