"The truth of this came bitterly home to my heart; I gave the speaker a fierce and reproachful glance, and folded my arms in silence.
"Frequently in that long and dreary night, when the mountain blast howled drearily through the shattered villa of Aviero, and moaned in the gorge through which the Tagus wound, I heard the cries and lamentations of the miserable girl, and the oaths and revelry of those to whom she was now abandoned.
"Ere daybreak her cries had ceased. Mille Baionettes! they nearly drove me mad.
"What became of her I know not, as I never saw her again.
"Next day, an old Padre of Santarem came with a message from the hidalgo Don Juan Lerma, whose mansion I had spared. The priest had volunteered on this errand of mercy, as no other man in Santarem would venture within the reach of the terrible Aviero, to whom he paid two hundred pillared dollars, and I was conducted to within a few toises of the advanced sentinels of our out-piquets, by Don Julian in person, and we bade each other adieu with a very good grace, but without either tears or regret on my side, as may be well assumed; and so ended my mal-adventure in the wood of Santarem."
The Captain St. Florian concluded his story.
"Parbleu!" said he, "how dry my throat is with speaking so long, and I dare say I have tired you to death. But let us have one more bottle of Janette's champagne, and then we shall decamp soberly to look for more adventures. But I must be cautious, being for guard at the chateau to-morrow. You cannot mean to return to Lagny to-night?"
"I must; and 't is high time we were off, Captain St. Florian; besides, I see Janette is decidedly sleepy."
"My horse is at an hotel in a street leading from the Champ Elysées."
"Ouf! a devil of a way from this. There is a church clock striking five. Nombril de Belzebub, 't is morning!"
We hurriedly rose to depart. Janette had fallen fast asleep in the bar, and St. Florian kissed her brow as he passed and deposited the reckoning in her lap. The portière of the cabaret let us out, and we sallied through the street to find my hotel.
At the chateau, as the Parisians name the palace, I bade adieu to the captain, and getting forth my horse, rode off.
The trumpets of the Austrian cavalry and the English drums were ringing on the early morning wind, as the reveille roused the soldiers of the allied host in their several camps and cantonments.