"Thank God, thank God!" cried the girl, and the relief in her voice and face seemed to make another woman of her. "It was wrong, I know. It was treason to the South—I love the South—but I strove to prevent—"
"Ah!" exclaimed Beauregard. "I have it now! Sempland—"
"Oh, sir!" cried the girl, "where is he?"
"He is preparing," continued Beauregard, coolly—he had the clew to the mystery and he determined to follow it to the end—"to be tried by a court-martial—"
"By a court-martial, General Beauregard! For what, sir?"
"For disobedience of orders and neglect of duty, in the face of the enemy. And I am in two minds whether to these charges should be added cowardice and treason or not!"
"Impossible!" exclaimed Fanny Glen.
"Miss Glen, it is an absolute fact. He came to me yesterday afternoon and volunteered for the command of the expedition. Begged for it, in fact. Major Lacy reluctantly but generously yielded to him with my consent."
"It was for me he sought it," said the girl, full of reproach for herself. "I had mocked him for his lack of distinction, sir, before he saw you. He hazarded his life for my approval and for the cause of the South."
A fuller light broke upon the general's mind. He understood all now, yet he went on pitilessly.