THE DEAD TRYST BY JAMES GRANT AUTHOR OF 'THE ROMANCE OF WAR' LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL NEW YORK: 9, LAFAYETTE PLACE 1883 JAMES GRANT'S NOVELS, _Price 2s. each, Fancy Boards._ The Romance of War The Aide-de-Camp The Scottish Cavalier Bothwell Jane Seton: or, the Queen's Advocate Philip Rollo The Black Watch Mary of Lorraine Oliver Ellis: or, the Fusileers Lucy Arden: or, Hollywood Hall Frank Hilton: or, the Queen's Own The Yellow Frigate Harry Ogilvie: or, the Black Dragoons Arthur Blane Laura Everingham: or, the Highlanders of Glenora The Captain of the Guard Letty Hyde's Lovers Cavaliers of Fortune Second to None The Constable of France The Phantom Regiment The King's Own Borderers The White Cockade First Love and Last Love Dick Rooney The Girl he Married Lady Wedderburn's Wish Jack Manly Only an Ensign Adventures of Rob Roy Under the Red Dragon The Queen's Cadet Shall I Win Her? Fairer than a Fairy One of the Six Hundred Morley Ashton Did She Love Him? The Ross-shire Buffs Six Years Ago Vere of Ours The Lord Hermitage The Royal Regiment Duke of Albany's Own Highlanders The Cameronians The Scots Brigade Violet Jermyn Jack Chaloner CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. TWO COUSINS II. CHARLIE PIERREPONT III. THE DREADED MEETING IV. CHARLIE IN LOVE V. WHAT HAPPENED IN THE DOM KIRCHE VI. AN ALARM VII. AMONG THE BREAKERS VIII. CHARLIE'S VISITOR IX. FOR LIFE AND DEATH X. TO THE RHINE! XI. SEPARATED XII. THE BAPTISM OF FIRE XIII. THE DREAM IN THE BIVOUAC XIV. THE LETTER OF ERNESTINE XV. WHAT THE 'EXTRA BLATT' TOLD XVI. IN FRONT OF METZ XVII. FACING A BATTERY OF MITRAILLEUSES XVIII. IN THE ENEMY'S HANDS XIX. THE CHATEAU DE CAILLÉ XX. ERNESTINE XXI. AT AIX ONCE MORE XXII. AT BURTSCHEID CONCLUSION THE DEAD TRYST. CHAPTER I. THE COUSINS. On an evening in summer before the late siege of Paris, three ladies--one a matron of mature years, the other two both young and handsome girls, a brunette and a blonde--were seated in one of the lofty windows of a stately room on the first _étage_ of the Grand Hotel Royal, which immediately overlooks the Rhine at Cologne. The senior of these--Adelaide, Countess of Frankenburg, a woman grey-haired now, and with features somewhat of the heavy German type--had just received a letter, and was intent upon it, while her daughter Ernestine, and her orphan niece Herminia, watched her face with interest, and forgot the little Tauchnitz editions over which they had been idling. 'What does my brother Heinrich say?' asked Ernestine.