"I know it. Their main body lies an hour's distance from here. But I must force my way through, if it is possible."
The American stared at him in consternation. "Alone? Wounded? Has this attack not shown you the impossibility of such a step?"
"This very attack gives me courage. It came from below; the French patrols avoid the mountain-road; my way is clear."
"Hardly! You rush on to your destruction, Lieutenant Fernow."
"Well, then," replied Walter, while the old melancholy smile flitted over his face, "another meeting will be spared me, and to you, murder in a duel; for after what has just happened, I will never draw a weapon against you.--But one thing more, Mr. Alison. I do not know how you came past the guard, and I will not ask you; but I demand your word of honor not to follow me further, and to go back immediately by the path on which you came. I am forced to demand this. Do not refuse it."
Alison gazed at him morosely. "I have nothing more to seek in the mountains," he said; "I will go back immediately."
"I thank you, and now--farewell!"
Walter turned away and vanished in the shrubbery.
Alison gazed after him.
"There he goes, right into the midst of the enemy, with that calmness and those eyes before which mine almost fell. Oh, this German!"--he clinched his hands in savage fury. "I can force her to be my wife, but her heart will never forget him; it cannot,--I understand that!"