looked at the blind man's face, that its sad features kindled with
enthusiasm, and his head was raised proudly from its wonted and
melancholy bend. "Thank Heaven!" she said, as the troop had nearly
passed them, "the danger is over!" Not so. One of the last two soldiers
who rode abreast was unfortunately mounted on a young and unmanageable
horse. The rider's oaths and digging spur only increased the fire and
impatience of the charger; it plunged from side to side of the narrow
street.

"Look to yourselves!" cried the horseman, as he was borne on to the place
where Lucille and the stranger stood against the wall. "Are ye mad? Why
do you not run?"

"For Heaven's sake, for mercy's sake, he is blind!" cried Lucille,
clinging to the stranger's side.

"Save yourself, my kind guide!" said the stranger. But Lucille dreamed
not of such desertion. The trooper wrested the horse's head from the
spot where they stood; with a snort, as it felt the spur, the enraged
animal lashed out with its hind-legs; and Lucille, unable to save _both_,
threw herself before the blind man, and received the shock directed
against him; her slight and delicate arm fell broken by her side, the
horseman was borne onward. "Thank God, _you_ are saved!" was poor
Lucille's exclamation; and she fell, overcome with pain and terror, into
the arms which the stranger mechanically opened to receive her.

"My guide! my friend!" cried he, "you are hurt, you--"

"No, sir," interrupted Lucille, faintly, "I am better, I am well. _This_
arm, if you please,--we are not far from your hotel now."