recluse, has enlisted this morning in the Fourth Artillery. He's a
splendid-looking animal, and there's the right stuff for a soldier in
him, if I'm not mistaken. He's in earnest too, for he enlists in the
regiment ordered back to Washington. Bless me, child, another goblet
broken; you'll ruin the mess in glassware, at this rate!"

"Have you heard anything more of the Princess, papa?"

"Nothing, but perhaps it's as well that she has gone. These cursed
settlers are at their old complaints again about what they call 'Indian
depredations,' and I have just received orders from head-quarters to
keep the settlement clear of all vagabond aborigines. I am afraid,
my dear, that a strict construction of the term would include your
protegee."

The time for the departure of the Fourth Artillery had come. The night
before was thick and foggy. At one o'clock, a shot on the ramparts
called out the guard and roused the sleeping garrison. The new sentry,
Private Grey, had challenged a dusky figure creeping on the glacis, and,
receiving no answer, had fired. The guard sent out presently returned,
bearing a lifeless figure in their arms. The new sentry's zeal, joined
with an ex-frontiersman's aim, was fatal.

They laid the helpless, ragged form before the guard-house door, and
then saw for the first time that it was the Princess. Presently she
opened her eyes. They fell upon the agonized face of her innocent
slayer, but haply without intelligence or reproach.

"Georgy!" she whispered.