Romantic tragedy and spirit tale set in France. A letter left to a friend after his death reveals the secret of a French soldier's life: his youthful love for a poor girl, his father's determination that he should wed another and the poor girl's suicide. After a solitary life of courting death as a soldier he is crippled, and during the next five years is comforted by a female spirit who finally reveals herself as his dead love. (PB)