"Do not

Percy, who had listened attentively. be discouraged, Darnley; I don't apprehend any ultimate evil to yourself, whatever the immediate result may be. To tell you the truth, old Bore is perfectly delighted that he has been able to lay his hand on you. He and Ashton have been closeted ever since parade this morning, and the doctor was sent for previously to the breaking up of the conference. They have framed the charges together, of course, and cleverly framed they are!"

con

There was the preamble, as usual, for " duct unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman,” exhibited in three instances; first, in Darnley's having unwarrantably forced himself on the presence of Captain Ashton, by overleaping a fence which separated their respective compounds, and remained there contrary to the express desire of Captain Ashton; secondly, in having, at the same time and place, without any provocation, threatened Captain Ashton with a challenge to fight a duel; and, thirdly, in having applied to him the terms "liar and coward," with other violent and abusive lan

guage the whole being in breach of the articles of war.

Such is an outline of the charges, which Darnley read over with a smile of pure, unmixed contempt. Not that he was blind to the fact of the necessary sentence that must follow their being proved; but he disdained, with the deepest scorn, the malignant bitterness that had so striven for his ruin, and shrunk from encountering him where-bad and lamentable as the fact is—a soldier believes all his personal grievances ought to meet redress.

It would be idle to follow the thoughts of the suffering pair through all the mazes in which they deviated during the interval which necessarily intervened before the day of trial. In the all-absorbing occupation of his mind, Darnley's bodily sickness was almost disregarded. True, he was feeble as a child; but the pains that had once tortured every limb, had for the present ceased, and so far he was in a state of comparative ease. If ever woman was what God designed her to be-a helpmate for manUnwearied in Mrs. Darnley was that woman.

her attention, untiring in her patience, she listened with ready ear to all the conjectures with which his sickly mind occupied itself; she aided his weakness; by her evident fortitude she taught him resignation; and by the piety which was her best support at all times, and now felt indeed as a rock of defence, she was enabled to trust Him"who tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb," and to contemplate the future without despair.

And she had much to occupy her. There was one solitary point in which she could ask counsel of none but her own bosom; and long and frequent were her communings with that counsellor. To open to Darnley the secret with which her thoughts were occupied, would but inflict on him an anxiety tenfold more cruel than her own, and force on her the task of lightening his apprehensions whilst she had to combat her own. Therefore, after much consideration-after bringing every faculty of her mind to bear upon the subject-after having devoutly and humbly sought guidance and light from "the fountain of all wisdom," she took

courage, and did boldly that which she believed her highest duties called on her to do.

Before the charges against Darnley were returned from the Adjutant-General's office to his regimental head-quarters, a simple but copious statement of his case had been privately conveyed to one who, whatever might be the fiat of the court-martial, had the approval or disapproval of it in his power. The statement took a retrospective view of the dreadful state of bodily suffering to which Captain Darnley had for so many months been a prey; it went on to record various instances of annoyance on the part of Captain Ashton, which, though too skilfully contrived to be tangible, were not the less likely to irritate a high-feeling man, who was conscious of their design and writhed beneath their effects. It asserted, also, the hostility of Colonel Bore, his close alliance with Captain Ashton, and certain occurrences in which nothing but Captain Darnley's interference had prevented the grossest violation of all discipline. It revealed the system under which Doctor Thompson had acted — that,

alarmed by the evident danger of Darnley, he had volunteered to give him a sick-certificate to England; that, so far from improving, Captain Darnley had daily become worse, up to the very evening when the events occurred on which the charges preferred against him had been framed. It disclosed the tergiversation manifested on that evening by Doctor Thompson, which had naturally tended to irritate Captain Darnley to excess. It then went on to relate without comment, verbatim, the conversation overheard by Darnley between Captain Ashton and Doctor Thompson, when Darnley, irritated to frenzy by such palpable demonstration of the evil influence that was at work against him, was impelled to that unfortunate violence which had reduced him to his present dangerous predicament.

"If the opinion of a man's fellows,” thus it concluded, " be satisfactory evidence of his character, then let all Darnley's brother officers be called on to bear record. Ask of them whether he be not of courage as noble as ever animated the pulse of officer and gentleman,