"No! no!" exclaimed General Harero, "not yet, not yet." He had
jumped on board the barque, and had cut the davit ropes with his
sword, and thus succeeded in launching the boat with himself and the
two seamen in it.

At this moment the swimmer rose once more slowly with his burthen to
the surface; but his efforts were so faintly made now, that he
barely floated, and yet with a nervous vigor he kept the boy still
far above himself. And now it was that the noble instinct of the
hound stood his young master in such importance, and led him to
seize with his teeth the boy's clothes, while the swimmer once more
fairly gained his self-possession, and the boat with General Harero
and the seamen came alongside. In a moment more the boy with his
preserver and the dog were safe in the boat, which was rowed at once
to the quay.

A shout of satisfaction rang out from twenty voices that had
witnessed the scene.

Isabella, the moment they were safely in the boat, fainted, while
Count Anguera ran for a volante for conveyance home. The swimmer
soon regained his strength, and when the boat reached the quay, he
lifted the boy from it himself. It was a most striking picture that
presented itself to the eye at that moment on the quay, in the dim
twilight that was so struggling with the moon's brighter rays.

The father, embracing the reviving boy, looked the gratitude he
could not find words to express, while a calm, satisfied smile
ornamented the handsome features of the soldier who had saved Ruez's