"You must not blame me if I never return," said she, eagerly, as he bent to button her cloak for her. "You know that it is my place to care for St. Udo for his grandmother's sake. You will wait in New York for news of me, won't you?" Mr. Davenport took her in his arms and handed her into the boat, and swung himself after her. "Think I'd send you off alone, Miss Margaret?" asked he, with glistening eyes. "By gad, you must think meanly of me." For the first time her resolution was shaken; she looked at him doubtfully. "Go back! go back!" she cried, beseechingly. "You must not peril your life for ours." The old man shook his head and sat down in the thwarts, and the boatman rowed away. So they went to meet the peril which was worse than the battle-field; and the crew on the deck of the steamer gave them a cheer of admiration; and the passengers waved them a dubious "God-speed;" and the men sitting in the pretty bark raised a feeble "huzzah!" in return, which however, sank into hopeless silence ere it was half expressed; and they melted from the straining eyes which followed them, and went their way. The boatman rowed into a wharf of the deserted town, secured his craft, and lifted Margaret out. "D'ye see that great house among them trees?" he asked, pointing to a large mansion on the brow of the hill, perhaps a quarter of a mile distant. "Them's the officers' quarters, miss, and we'll go there first. There were a score or more of sick soldiers there for their health. I came here myself after the battle, where they most killed the colonel." "Were you with the colonel the night he was stabbed?" asked Davenport. "Yes, sir. I never left him when I could manage to be with him. Maybe you've heard of Reed, who served the colonel for a while?" "Yes," sighed Margaret, "he mentioned you in a letter to Dr. Gay. Hasten, kind friend, and bring us to him." They sped through the deserted streets, where every window was barred and every door jealously locked, and a few famished dogs broke the silence by long, wild, and ominous howls. A cart, covered with a white canvas cloth, rumbled heavily by, and then Reed took the lady's hand, and dragged her to the opposite pavement, whispering: "Muffle your face in your handkerchief, miss, for Heaven's sake!" And with bated breath they let the dead cart rumble by with its ghastly burden. A funeral emerged from a court hard by--a funeral which was composed of the clergyman, an old man weeping over his dead, and tottering feebly after, and four negroes carrying the bier. They flitted by like phantoms, casting apathetic glances after the old man, the boatman, and the young lady who were mounting the hill to that lonely house on its brow.