At last it was our turn to attack.
On we moved, over the piled-up masses of dead and dying, and
were approaching the stream, when suddenly I perceived an extraordinary
sight. Galloping wildly towards us, his arms tightly clasped
around his horse's neck, against which his blanched cheek was
tightly pressed, was a man arrayed in the full costume of a Zu-Vendi
general, but in whom, as he came nearer, I recognized none other
than our lost Alphonse. It was impossible even then to mistake
those curling mustachios. In a minute he was tearing through
our ranks and narrowly escaped being cut down, till at last somebody
caught his horse's bridle, and he was brought to me just as a
momentary halt occurred in our advance to allow what remained
of our shattered squares to form into line.
'Ah, monsieur,' he gasped out in a voice that was nearly inarticulate
with fright, 'grace to the sky, it is you! Ah, what I have endured!
But you win, monsieur, you win; they fly, the laches. But listen,
monsieur -- I forget, it is no good; the Queen is to be murdered
tomorrow at the first light in the palace of Milosis; her guards
will leave their posts, and the priests are going to kill her.
Ah yes! they little thought it, but I was ensconced beneath
a banner, and I heard it all.
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