“The Empecinado, with one companion, have fairly got away,” replied Captain St. Pierre; “the other three are in your presence.” “The other three!” exclaimed Colonel La Coste, contemptuously--“Bah!--what matters the capture of these small scoundrels, when the greater bandits have escaped? have they indeed got off? and how, in the devil’s name, did they effect it?” “I would half believe, through the especial assistance of the black gentleman. To steel and lead they seemed impervious, or they never could have been proof against one hundred shots and sword-cuts. By Heaven! their escape appears miraculous! They gained the river, plunged into the swollen stream, and under a biting fire, while bullet after bullet struck the water before and behind, they reached the opposite bank unhurt, scrambled up the bank, and were instantly lost in the thick cover of yonder cork-wood.” “Were they not followed, hunted, pursued? Is Henri after them?” inquired the colonel, with impatience; but the question was unanswered. “Speak, St. Pierre!--where is my nephew?--close on the brigands’ footsteps?” The captain shook his head. “What mean ye?” exclaimed the old republican; “Is he hurt, or wounded?” “Worse--” “Worse!--what, dead?” “Dead!” was the suppressed reply. “How?--when?--where? I know the worst;--go on, St. Pierre.” “Colonel La Coste, my heart bleeds to tell the story. Henri, your adopted son, and our beloved companion, is, indeed, no more! The felon leader, who has escaped us for the present, singled your nephew out and stabbed him!” “Great God!--Henri!--my son, my hope, my pride, fallen--and thus to fall! Die in the court-yard of an obscure posada, and perish ingloriously like a peasant in a drunken brawl--Henri! Henri!” A long and melancholy pause succeeded. “Where is my nephew?” exclaimed the old man, suddenly. “Here,” returned Captain St. Pierre, and his voice faltered. “Well, let me see thee, Henri, even though it be in death.” When I had been removed into the posada, I was for some time insensible to everything that passed, and, unknown to me, the body of the young lieutenant had been carried in, deposited on a bench immediately beside me, and covered with a military cloak. Some of the chasseurs who stood between me and the dead officer, now moved aside, and others brought lights, while the covering should be removed, and the veteran “look his last” upon the only being whom he loved.