'Speak, sir!' cried the General impetuously. 'What has happened?'
Still Carey seemed incapable of speech.
'Sir,' said one of the troopers, 'the Prince, I fear, is killed.'
The speaker was Private Le Toque, a Frenchman.
'Is that the case? Tell me instantly, sir!' resumed the General, with growing excitement.
'I fear it is so,' faltered Carey, in a low voice.
'Then what are you doing here, sir?'
A veil must be drawn over the rest of the interview, which was of a most painful character, wrote Major Ashe in his narrative of the occurrence.
A soldier—Tom Tyrrell, encouraged by the knowledge that his late comrade Florian was there—came rushing into the mess-tent, where Florian, with those who were now his brother-officers, was seated in happiness and jollity, bearing the terrible tidings, which spread through the camp like wildfire, and all who had horses mounted and rode forth to discover if they were true, and all spoke sternly and reprehensively of the luckless Lieutenant Carey, who eventually was tried by a court-martial, and died two years after in India, some said of a broken heart.
As Florian was one of the searchers for the slain Prince, the story of this latter's tragic death does not lie apart from ours.