"I was looking for you anxiously, Aurora. Will you keep this document for me, cousin? for if I am killed in Germany, I have no desire that it should be used by some boor to light his pipe with or wrap his butter in." It was the diploma of the Netherwood baronetcy, running in the name of "CAROLUS, DEI GRATIA, REX SCOTIÆ ET ANGLIÆ, &c. &c., _nostro Johanni Gauntleti de Netherwood, ejusque hæredibus masculis de corpore, &c., titulam gradum et dignitatem militis Baronetti in hac antiqua parte Regni Nostri Scotiæ,_" and so forth. "You shall be the custodier of this choice piece of archæology, for with my sword, Aurora, it is all my inheritance now. In my haversack or valise I have borne it ever since old Nathan Wylie, Sir Basil's evil mentor, sent it to me as a taunt amid my misfortunes." "You would still reproach me?" said she, in a low voice. "Nay, Aurora, on my soul I do not." "I thank you," she replied, with her eyes brimful of tears; for in addition to the peculiar position in which we stood, nothing melts a woman's heart so much as the aspect of a fine regiment departing for foreign service in time of war. "My mother has become feeble and ailing--I shall soon be alone in the world, so think kindly of me, Basil, when you are far away, even as we shall think kindly of you, for we are the last of our family--the last of the old Gauntlets of Netherwood." "I am, rather than you," said I, smiling. "How?" "Some one, of course, will marry you, so I must be the last." She blushed painfully, and her glance wandered to Shirley, but his _eyes_, at least, appeared to be intent upon the marching column. "I am going to Germany now, perhaps never to return; for news I have heard (here I referred to the strange tidings of Boisguiller) have made me, even in youth, somewhat reckless of life." "Oh, Basil, Basil! you must not speak thus." "Sir, Colonel Preston is looking back for _you_," said Major Shirley, with a slight tone of impatience and authority in his voice. "And there sounds a trumpet." "Then we do part friends at last?" said Aurora, with a sad smile. "Yes, dear cousin, the best of friends." She held up her cheek to be kissed by me; but somehow her rosy lip came in its place. I saw Shirley's face darken, but heeded it little, as I put spurs to my grey and dashed after the regiment, which was now trotting along the highway which led towards Brighton. CHAPTER XXV. SAIL FOR GERMANY.