"We are forced to request your house for a temporary hospital," remarks St. Udo, breaking the utter silence.
The spell dissolves—they both turn to him, and both become natural, and that is all St. Udo can discover in the meeting.
Madam Estvan immediately set her house at their disposal. Nothing would give her more gratification than to be of use to the Federal soldiers, for that she was not of the South they both must see.
She led them through the whole house, assisting them with charming graciousness to select the most suitable apartments, and bewailing the meagerness of her domestic force which would compel the soldiers to wait upon themselves. But do what she would, St. Udo could not divest himself of the conviction that she and the fair Sabrina figure were identical.
At last they returned to the lower hall and essayed to depart.
Madam Estvan accompanied them to the door with bland courtesy.
St. Udo was already opening the door, when a rattle of shot against the roof of the piazza startled him, and a cannon-ball immediately followed and crashed in the side of the doorway.
A fearful shriek burst from Madam Estvan; she rushed forward and clung to the little chevalier's arm.
"Mon Dieu! woman, let me go!" hissed he, with an ominous scowl.
"No, no, Ladislaus, save me, your poor Alice, who ever loved you! Don't desert me again!" wailed the woman, frantically.