Though now so near the woman I loved, I saw very little of her; indeed, I had not been able to snatch an hour to run home for the past fortnight. Yet, while I trudged on, I knew that one of the truest and best women on earth was awaiting me _au troisieme_ in the great old house in the Rue St. Sauveur. I think that for some time I must have been oblivious to my surroundings, for on turning sharply, my eyes suddenly detected some indistinct object, moving cautiously in the shadow. Something prompted me to refrain from challenging, and, with rifle ready, I quickly hurried to the spot. With a cry of surprise, a man in a workman's blouse sprang forward right up to the muzzle of my gun. I challenged, and presented my rifle. "Hold!" he gasped in French, in a low, hoarse tone. "Louis Henault, don't you know me? Have you so soon forgotten your fellow-student, Paul Olbrich?" The voice and the name caused me to start. "_You_!" I cried, peering into his face, and in the semi-darkness discovering the scar upon his cheek that he had received in the fencing school at Konigswinter. "You, Paul, my best friend! Alas that you are a Prussian, and we meet here as enemies!" "As enemies?" he repeated, in a strange, harsh tone. "Yes, Louis, you are right," he added bitterly,--"as enemies." "Why are you here?" I inquired breathlessly. "Why are you disguised as a French workman? It is my duty to arrest you--to--" "But you will not. Remember, we were friends beside the Rhine, and we can only be enemies to the outside world. Surely you, of all men, will not betray me!" "When last I heard of you, two years ago," I said, "you were a lieutenant of dragoons. To-night you are here, inside Paris, disguised." "To tell the truth," he replied quickly, "it is a love escapade. Let me get away quickly beyond the walls, and no one will know that you have detected me. See, over there," and he pointed to a portion of the wall deep in the shadow. "There is my _fiancee_. I have dared to pass through your lines to rescue her before the final onslaught." I peered in the direction indicated, and could just distinguish a figure, hidden by a cloak, and closely veiled. "Quick," he continued; "there is no time for reflection. If you raise an alarm, my fate is sealed; if you allow us to proceed, two lives will be made happy. Do you consent?" Grasping my hand, he pressed it hard, adding, "Do, Louis, for _her_ sake!" Muffled footsteps and the clank of arms broke the quiet. Three officers were approaching. "Go. May God protect you!" I replied; and, turning sharply, tramped onward in the opposite direction, while my old friend, and the woman he had rescued from starvation, were a second later lost in the darkness in the direction of the Prussian camp. Scarcely had I taken a dozen paces when there were shouts, followed by shots rapidly exchanged. "Spies!" I heard one of our men exclaim; "and, _sacre_! they've escaped!"