"You are right, General. I passed the years of my childhood at a military institution, and a little time ago I was a soldier myself." "In that case you must have some notion of the absolute necessity of the strictest discipline so long as the soldier is under arms." "I am well aware of it, and it was not that which made me abandon a military career. If he whom I am now addressing were to say to me, 'I stand here as a judge,' I should simply withdraw, knowing that my cause was lost. But, sir, I am now addressing the man that is in you, a man with a heart, a being blessed with human feeling, 'tis to him that I would speak." And the large black eyes of the stranger had such a heart-searching expression in them that the General turned away from him. Then, as if still in search of hope and confidence, the youth glanced in the direction of the General's wife, and her bright eyes gave him in return such a look of encouragement, as if to bid him not to fear, for they two were certainly at one in the matter. But now the General turned sharply round upon the stranger again. "Do you know what I am commonly called, whether from fear, or fun, or respect, I will not say, that is all one to me, but do you know what they commonly call me?" "Yes, they call you 'the man of iron,' yet even iron melts in a smelting-furnace." "Do you fancy there in such a smelting-furnace in the world?" "I hope so. I have got one more letter for you. I ought to have given it to you first of all, but I have kept it till last. The handwriting will be familiar to you. Take it and read it through." The General was dumfounded when he recognised the handwriting in which the address was written. The hand which had penned those lines had been somewhat tremulous, that was plain from the irregularity of the script, but he recognised it perfectly all the same. As he regarded it he grew a shade paler. He opened the letter, and his eyes remained riveted on the very first line as if he were too astonished to proceed any further. "Read on, General, I beg. Read it out aloud," murmured the youth; "we shall see whether the iron will melt or not." The General stared stiffly for a time at the young man, then he read the letter through in silence, finally refolding it and thrusting it into his breast-pocket. Then he turned to the window, and remained for a long time in a brown study. Suddenly he turned once more towards the youth and said: "Sir, devise some means whereby I may save this man. Find, I say, some way or mode of salvation compatible with soldierly honour, and I will pursue it." The youth, surprised, overcome, rushed towards the General, seized his muscular hand, and would certainly have kissed it had not the General drawn it back. Vértessy was very near losing his composure.