"One of whom we had better beware. He is no more a Count than the _tambour_ passing yonder with his drum on his back; but he is as false at heart as ever was Rodriguez, or the Counts of Carrion." "He is very attentive to you." "He is very troublesome,—_Santa Maria!_ a perfect nuisance. But my father favours him, and as his wrath is terrible, I am forced to dissemble. But, ah! retire now, Don Luiz, I beseech you!" Don Luiz was too much enraptured and bewildered to obey; and putting in his arm, he encircled and drew her close to the bars of the loop-hole, through which he pressed his glowing lip to her own. She yielded to him passively. "O senor!" "Senor again! Ah! these infernal bars, Virginia," he exclaimed. But releasing herself from his grasp, she glided away with the lightness of a fairy, and he saw her no more that night. But there was something so delightful in being near Virginia, and living under the same roof with her, that his feelings underwent an entire change before night closed in, and he looked less anxiously towards the distant positions of Lord Wellington’s army on the Pyrenees, and the aspect of his prison appeared less dismal and desolate. The presence of Virginia cast a halo over every thing; and new feelings of love, hope, and pleasure began to dawn in his heart. They met daily, almost hourly indeed, because in the narrow compass of a fortress or barrack, people encounter each other at every turn and corner; and some weeks passed away with a pleasure to Louis, which nothing seemed to cloud but the chance that Marshal Soult might order the prisoners in the château to be conveyed farther into the interior of the country, as vague rumours were afloat that the allied army was about to descend from the mountains and invade France. It was only from the casual observations of the French officers, at whose mess he often dined, that Lisle was able to gather any political intelligence, but that something warlike was expected appeared evident. The garrison of the château was strengthened by a company of chasseurs, additional works were erected, and scarcely a day passed without French troops being seen on the march southward; and it was only when Lisle beheld the clouds of dust and flash of steel appearing on the distant roads, that he felt himself indeed a prisoner, and all the disagreeable nature of his situation came vividly upon his mind. But again he thought of Virginia, and remembered that a single smile or a soft word from her were well worth all the gloss and glitter of parade, the enthusiasm, the excitement, and the glory of warfare.