“I have heard of all your busy nursing, and I do not blame you; I would rather praise. There, help the old man downstairs, and I am not afraid of your betraying us.”
The girl raised his hand and kissed it before rushing to her father, flinging her arms about him, and helping him away, so weak and semi-paralysed by fright that he could hardly totter from the room, the colonel following to the door, and signing to the soldiers to go down.
“There, he has had his punishment,” said the colonel, smiling; “and now you will be able to rest in peace.”
“Thank you, father, thank you,” whispered Fred, huskily.
“You see you were not to blame now.”
“Not so much as I thought, father.”
“Not to blame at all. There, make haste and grow strong, my boy, before we are driven out in turn by the enemy.”
“Are they near, father?”
“No; as far as I know, my boy. But the victors of yesterday are the defeated to-day, perhaps to win again to-morrow. Ah, my boy, it is fratricidal work! and, though I love my cause as well as ever, I would give all I possess as one of the richest men in our county to see home smiling again in peace.”