And now, provoked by the interruption, he arose to see the cause; when the door slowly opened, and Frank stood before him, pale and bloodless, with one arm in a sling, and supporting himself on a stick with the other. His wasted limbs but half filled his clothes; while in his lustreless eye and quivering lip there seemed the signs of coming death. With an instinct of kindness, the old General drew out a chair and pressed the poor boy down upon it. The youth kissed the hand as it touched him, and then heaved a heavy sigh. “This exertion was unfit for you, my poor boy,” said the Count, kindly. “They should not have permitted you to leave your bed.” “It was my fault, not theirs, General. I heard that you were about to leave the village without coming to the hospital, and I thought, as perhaps----,” here his voice faltered, and a gulping fulness of the throat seemed almost to choke him--“that as, perhaps, we might never meet again in this world, I ought to make one effort to see you, and tell you that I am not, nor ever was, a traitor!” [Illustration: 380] As though the effort had exhausted all “his strength, his arms dropped as he said the words; his head fell forward, and he would have fallen to the ground had not the old General caught him in his arms. “You are too weak, too ill for all this, my poor fellow.” said the Count, as he held the boy's hand in his own, and gazed affectionately at him. “True, ever true,” muttered the youth, with half-closed lids. “I will hear all this when you are better, Frank; when you are strong, and able to declare it manfully and openly. I will bless you, with my heart's warmest blessing, for the words that restore us both to fair fame and honor; but you must not speak more now.” The boy bent his head in token of submission, but never spoke. “It will be the proudest hour of my life, Frank, when you can throw off this reproach, and stand forth a thorough Dalton, unshaken in truth and honor. But, to do this, you must be calm and quiet now,--not speak, nor even think of these things. You shall remain with me.” Here the boy's tears fell upon the old man's hand. For a second or two not a word was spoken. At last he went on,---- “Yes; you shall not leave me from this hour. Our fortunes are the same. With you it remains to show that we are worthy soldiers of our Kaiser.” Frank pressed the old Count's hand upon his heart, as though to call its very pulses to bear witness to his fealty. This simple action seemed to have exhausted his last energy, for he now sank back in his chair and fainted.