The Missing Bride | Page 8

ax.
"I don't understand that, Edith! He is a British officer."
"He is my deliverer! When Thorg set his men on me to hunt me, he cast
himself before me, and kept them at bay until you came!"
"Mutinied!" exclaimed Cloudesley, in astonishment, and a sort of
horror.

"Yes, I suppose it was mutiny," said the young ensign, speaking for the
first time and blushing as he withdrew his arm from Edith's waist.
"Whe-ew! here's a go!" Cloudesley was about to exclaim, but
remembering himself he amended his phraseology, and said, "A very
embarrassing situation, yours, sir."
"I cannot regret it!"
"Certainly not! There are laws of God and humanity above all military
law, and such you obeyed, sir! I thank you on the part of my young
countrywoman," said Cloudesley, who imagined that he could talk
about as well as he could fight.
"If the occasion could recur, I would do it again! Yes, a thousand
times!" the young man's eyes added to Edith--only to her.
"But oh! perdition! while I am talking here that serpent! that
copperhead! that cobra capella! is coming round again! How
astonishingly tenacious of life all foul, venomous creatures are!"
exclaimed Cloudesley, as he happened to espy Throg moving slightly
where he lay, and rushed out to dispatch him.
The other two young people were left alone in the hall.
"I am afraid you have placed yourself in a very, very dangerous
situation, by what you did to save me."
"But do you know--oh, do you know how happy it has made me? Can
you divine how my heart--yes, my soul--burns with the joy it has given
me? When I saw you standing there before your enemies so beautiful!
so calm! so constant--I felt that I could die for you--that I would die for
you. And when I sprang between you and your pursuers, I had resolved
to die for you. But first to set your soul free. Edith, you should not have
fallen into the hands of the soldiers! Yes! I had determined to die for
and with you! You are safe. And whatever befalls me, Edith, will you
remember that?"

"You are faint! You are wounded! Indeed you are wounded! Oh, where!
Oh! did any of our people strike you?"
"No--it was one of our men, Edith! I do not know your other name,
sweet lady!"
"Never mind my name--it is Edith--that will do; but your wound--your
wound--oh! you are very pale--here! lie down upon this settee. Oh, it is
too hard!--come into my room, it opens here upon the hall--there is a
comfortable lounge there--come in and lie down--let me get you
something?"
"Thanks--thanks, dearest lady, but I must get upon my horse and go!"
"Go?"
"Yes, Edith--don't you understand, that after what I have done--after
what I have had the joy of doing--the only honorable course left open to
me, is to go and give myself up to answer the charges that may be
brought against me?"
"Oh, heaven! I know! I know what you have incurred by defending me!
I know the awful penalty laid upon a military officer who lifts his hand
against his superior. Don't go! oh, don't go!"
"And do you really take so much interest in my fate, sweetest lady?"
said the youth, gazing at her with the deepest and most delightful
emotions.
"'Take an interest' in my generous protector! How should I help it? Oh!
don't go! Don't think of going. You will not--will you? Say that you
will not!"
"You will not advise me to anything dishonorable, I am sure."
"No--no--but oh! at such a fearful cost you have saved me. Oh! when I
think of it, I wish you had not interfered to defend me. I wish it had not
been done!"

"And I would not for the whole world that it had not been done! Do not
fear for me, sweetest Edith! I run little risk in voluntarily placing
myself in the hands of a court-martial--for British officers are
gentlemen, Edith!--you must not judge them by those you have
seen--and when they hear all the circumstances, I have little doubt that
my act will be justified--besides, my fate will rest with Ross, General
Ross--one of the most gallant and noble spirits ever created, Edith! And
now you must let me go, fairest lady." And he raised her hand
respectfully to his lips, bowed reverently, and left the hall to find his
horse.
Just then Cloudesley was seen approaching, crying out that they had
escaped.
"You are not going to leave us, sir?" he asked Cloudesley, catching
sight of the ensign.
"I am under the necessity of doing so."
"But you are not able to travel--you can scarcely sit your horse. Pray do
not think of leaving us."
"You are a soldier--at least an amateur