"Your pardon!" cried George; and, springing from his steaming horse, he handed a sealed packet to his interrogator. "Read and rejoice!"[27] The robber turned to the firelight, and unfolded the document, which quivered in his hand as he read it. One tear and then another fell upon the paper; slowly he bent his knees, and turned his glistening eyes to heaven. "My Lord and my God!" he exclaimed, his utterance choked by sobs, "for sixteen years I have been hunted like a wild beast, but Thou vouchsafest to me to be once more a man!" He turned to his companions. "To horse!" he cried; "let the troop assemble." They sprang to their horses, and soon upon all sides the signal-whistle was heard. In ten minutes, a hundred and eighty men, well mounted and armed, mustered round the fire. "Friends and comrades," cried Sandor, "that which we have so long desired has come to pass. We are no longer robbers--our country pardons us. It is granted us to atone our crimes by an honourable death. Is there one amongst you who does not repent his past life, and rejoice to be allowed to end it in honour?" "Not one!" was the unanimous shout. "Will you follow me to the battle?" "Everywhere! To death!" "Swear it." The vow was brief. "We joyfully swear to shed our blood for our fatherland!" "Add," said George to Rosa, "_and to give no quarter_!" NOSTALGIA. The soldier is dying of home-sickness. On a sudden an epidemic broke out amongst the Hungarian troops stationed in foreign lands. A mysterious man wandered from place to place, visiting the wine-houses frequented by the hussars, and joining in their conversation. The words he spoke, repeated from mouth to mouth, spread far and wide amongst the light-hearted soldiers, whose light-heartedness then suddenly left them. The stranger told them of things which had happened in their native land; and, when he departed, he left behind him printed verses and proclamations. These the privates took to their serjeants to have read to them. When they heard them read they wept and cursed, and learned by heart both verse and prose, from the first word to the last, and repeated them from morning till night. Then many took to their beds, and neither ate nor drank; and when the doctors asked what ailed them, they pointed to their hearts, and said, "Home! home!--let us go home!" Many died, and no one could say what had killed them. The rough uneducated soldiers were pining away in home-sickness, like flowers transplanted to a foreign and ungenial soil. An experiment was tried. Some of the sick men received leave to go home. The next day--they were well and hearty. It became known that some one was at work secretly inoculating the soldier with this strange malady; but it was impossible to detect the person.