During the night which he passed on the field of battle, in a sort of delirium brought on by the fever of his wounds, he saw, or fancied he saw, this same man bending over him, with a look of great mildness and deep melancholy, stanching his wounds, and using every effort to revive him.

But as your father, whose senses were still wandering, repulsed his kindness saying, that after such a defeat, it only remained to die--it appeared as if this man replied to him; 'You must live for Eva!' meaning your mother, whom the general had left at Warsaw, to join the Emperor, and make this campaign of France." "How strange, Dagobert!--And since then, did our father never see this man ?" "Yes, he saw him--for it was he who brought news of the general to your poor mother." "When was that?
We never heard of it." "You remember that, on the day your mother died, you went to the pine forest with old Fedora ?" "Yes," answered Rose, mournfully; "to fetch some heath, of which our mother was so fond." "Poor mother!" added Blanche; "she appeared so well that morning, that we could not dream of the calamity which awaited us before night." "True, my children; I sang and worked that morning in the garden, expecting, no more than you did, what was to happen.

Well, as I was singing at my work, on a sudden I heard a voice ask me in French: 'Is this the village of Milosk ?'--I turned round, and saw before me a stranger; I looked at him attentively, and, instead of replying, fell back two steps, quite stupefied." "Ah, why ?" "He was of tall stature, very pale, with a high and open forehead; but his eyebrows met, and seemed to form one black streak across it." "Then it was the same man who had twice been with our father in battle ?" "Yes--it was he." "But, Dagobert," said Rose, thoughtfully, "is it not a long time since these battles ?" "About sixteen years." "And of what age was this stranger ?" "Hardly more than thirty." "Then how can it be the same man, who sixteen years before, had been with our father in the wars ?" "You are right," said Dagobert, after a moment's silence, and shrugging his shoulders: "I may have been deceived by a chance likeness--and yet--" "Or, if it were the same, he could not have got older all that while." "But did you ask him, if he had not formerly relieved our father ?" "At first I was so surprised that I did not think of it; and afterwards, he remained so short a time, that I had no opportunity.

Well, he asked me for the village of Milosk.

'You are there, sir,' said I, 'but how do you know that I am a Frenchman ?' 'I heard you singing as I passed,' replied he; 'could you tell me the house of Madame Simon, the general's wife ?' 'She lives here, sir.' Then looking at me for some seconds in silence, he took me by the hand and said: 'You are the friend of General Simon--his best friend ?' Judge of my astonishment, as I answered: 'But, sir, how do you know ?' 'He has often spoken of you with gratitude.' 'You have seen the general then ?' 'Yes, some time ago, in India.