I was in no humour to come into collision with such bears, and was on the point of avoiding them when one of the two advanced and said, "Was it a meeting, sir, you desired me to promote with Mr Conn ? " Catching at his meaning I disavowed any such intention, and added that if I was not wrong in thinking that I spoke to two English gentlemen, I would acquaint them with the reason of my former request. They directly informed me of their respective names and rank. One was a Major and the other a Doctor in the English Army. Upon hearing this I explained that I was a Lieutenant in the English Navy just escaped from Bitche, and that, having no parole ticket, I was unable to get into Verdun, where my friend and former messmate was at present living, and I wished to apprise him of my neighbourhood. They redeemed their former conduct by executing my commission without further hesitation, and reappeared soon after with Conn, who was surprised and delighted to see me. had a long chat together, and arranged to meet again at night, when I was to be at a certain spot under the walls, and Conn and some friends of his would be above with a rope to hand me up. At dusk we separated, and to be secure against surprise I looked out some chance place of concealment until the time appointed for the meeting. I soon found the stunted remains of an old We hedge on the Common that grew from a slight elevation, formerly, I suppose, some boundary line on a bank; behind this I lay safely concealed from all stragglers. At the proper time I cautiously made the spot selected, where I hugged the wall, with both ears open to the slightest sound. After some anxious waiting my name was pronounced in a loud whisper twice. I answered likewise, and felt along the wall for the rope, which I soon secured. When I tested it and found all fast, I began to ascend monkey fashion hand over hand, but I had scarcely reached halfway when I discovered the rope itself being hauled upwards. Determined not to let go, I clung savagely to it, and up I went until my hands came into contact with the edge of the parapet, with the result that the skin of my knuckles and the backs of my hands was badly lacerated. A strong grip was then made on my collar, and I standing in the presence of Conn and his confederates, two fine young fellows in the English Army named Beamish. Smarting from the injuries to my hands, I ungratefully muttered as soon as I had recovered breath, "What a damned lubberly trick to haul me up that way." Lubberly or not," answered one of the Beamishes, "you ought to consider yourself devilish lucky to get up at all." And so I did when I reflected a second, soon and I thanked them warmly for the good turn they had done me. Only I afterwards wished that they had been a little less zealous in the enterprise, and allowed me to scale the wall in a more orthodox manner, for my hands were a frightful sight, and even to this day the marks of the midnight adventure are apparent upon them. quarters in the town, where I was stored away in a room next to the kitchen. I remained here about a fortnight, during which time L'Estrange came to see me. He paid his share of our late expenses, and told me that his friends, amongst them "a Lord and a Baronet," had advised him not to proceed any farther with me, as they considered my ideas of Conn took me direct to some escape "too romantic." XIV. L'Estrange's secession placed me in a dilemma; but I found a new friend in J. Carslake, who was a perfect stranger to me. He was a Lieutenant in the Navy, and he procured for me a passport as a Swiss clockmaker. Furthermore, he made arrangements with a man to take me a certain distance from Verdun. ment When preparations had been completed I took leave of my protectors and accompanied my guide, who lowered me from the wall by means of a rope which he had brought. It had already been concerted between us that on reaching the ground I should speedily seek the shelter of a large avenue which led up to one of the entrances The next morning at about of the town, and that when I breakfast-time we stopped at saw a man standing with a an inn. My guardian angel white handkerchief in his hand put up at a public-house where I should join him and follow there were about one dozen his instructions. A curious gendarmes. He coolly ordered coincidence now happened breakfast, said something to which would have undone me me that only required a nod but for a lucky bit of judg- of the head, said something to one of the gendarmes in a manner that all might hear him, then went out to his horse, and in due time came into his meal. It is said that "fortune favours the brave," for it was evident that not one of the gendarmes were aware that there was a culprit and an enemy so near to their elbows. It is true they were very busy getting ready their accoutrements, and appeared to be much pressed for time. In proceeding we passed several regiments bound for Russia. A Marshal and two outriders came up, and my friend could not get out of the way for the first outrider, and the second struck the horse in the eye, which no doubt made the unfortunate animal a blinker for the rest of his life. At Châlons he took a place for me in the diligence for Paris. When I entered it I found to my horror it was occupied by seven officers, five of them decorated with the Legion of Honour. The one by whose side I sat was a Colonel; and a lady at the farther end of the carriage said something to him which I could see related to me, and for which he rebuked her. When we stopped he asked me if I would join them in a bottle of wine, suggesting that if I changed places with a person who was sitting by the side of the driver, I should be more comfortable. I gladly took the hint, but found that I had changed from the frying pan into the fire, for the guard asked me what countryman I was. I answered "Swiss." What canton? On my naming Berne, he exclaimed, "Ah, my own," but he had penetration enough to see that I was not disposed to talk, and did not trouble me more. We went on to Paris. When landing in the yard, the lady, a very pretty woman, came to me, and in the kindest manner said, "if she could be of any service to me, she would render it with the greatest pleasure." I felt her kindness much, but my object was to go ahead ; and I secured a place in the diligence for Caen and then took a voiture to drive about Paris to beguile the time, taking care to change my coachman once or twice. I started for Caen next morning, taking my seat by the guard. I kept my handkerchief to my mouth, hoping that my neighbours would believe me to be tormented with toothache. At the dinner-time who should sit alongside of me but the great man before whom I had been taken with Whitehurst. He said, "Will any gentleman join me with a bottle of Burgundy? I saw that he had been eyeing me, so that I thought it best to put a good face on the matter, and signified my readiness to do So. He then left the room, and a gendarme came in and demanded to see our passports. I gave him mine-" Grieme, watchmaker," was the name on my passport-and he went out with it. That I enjoyed my meal much in his absence cannot be supposed. However, he did not keep me long in suspense, for he soon returned and handed me my passport as well as the rest. Dinner over and the diligence ready, nothing occurred to interrupt our journey to Caen. Arrived there, I went out at once to my old friend, and made arrangements for getting on to the seaside. At the end of the week he brought me intelligence that he had found a man that would take me in until a fair wind offered. On the day when we were to leave Caen I was attacked with earache. However, that did not alter the hour-nine o'clock -when he punctually made his appearance. Heavy rain had set in just before we started, and fell in torrents during the whole of our ninemile walk. Of course, we were wet through before we had accomplished one. It would not have signified, perhaps, if I had not been obliged to stop at the corner of a wall toward the end of our journey, where I had to wait for half an hour in the bitter cold wind. The night was pitch dark, and I dared not move, as my conductor had strictly enjoined silence. On his return he brought a man with him, and duly handed me over to him, and I took leave of my soundhearted friend. My new acquaintance bade me follow him, and we went to a house with a sort of a stable directly opposite it, in which was his horse. Above was a loft just high enough in the centre for me to stand [up. It was half full of straw, to which he pointed, signifying that it was my home, and that I must make the best of it. Then he wished me goodnight, and took away the lantern. There was I in agony with the earache, which soon doubled, for as my clothes dried on me, so did the pain increase in the other ear, and there I was for a fortnight. I could not hear a word, and I was in a state of utter wretchedness; while the discharge from my ears was so offensive that my hostess could scarcely bear to come near me. I thought I could not last long; and they were in a stew as to how to dispose of my body when dead. However, at the end of three weeks I heard a bell, and in a few days, with plenty of food, became myself again in strength. One day the landlady asked me to let her bring her daughter, as she had never seen an Englishman, and at my next meal she made her appearance. A very pretty girl about fifteen or sixteen years of age came to me, as I sat on the straw, and presented her cheek for me to kiss, and twice turned it so that I had three; and she expressed much the same sentiment as her brother had done before. Their astonishment was great that an Englishman could be so good-looking, as I was the first they had ever seen. The compliment was equivocal. At last the hour arrived when the father and son came to me about ten o'clock at night, and helped me to launch a flat boat, and gave me a pole with which I poled my way to a fishing boat at anchor, and in " quarter less no time " I had cut her cable, and was a free man on the ocean. I got an oar out, put her head the right way, and away she drifted. Of course, being in the dark, I had to feel for everything, so that it was some time before I could step the foremast and lash a light spar over the bows; but it was done in time to get out of sight of the land when daylight dawned. As the day opened the wind lessened, and nearly all that day-Sunday-was a calm, so I had nothing to do but calculate my chances. One doubt was whether the rickety old thing I had got into would bear a sea. It was an old patched-up boat with a rudder belonging to some craft twice her size, and it took me four hours before I could ship it, although calm, it being so being so heavy that I could scarcely lift it. As to getting the mainmast up, it was quite out of the question. Towards evening the wind sprang up again from the south, and I gently glided over the silent waves, with the full moon shining surrounded with the largest halo I have ever seen; and as I had nothing else to occupy my mind, I speculated as to whether it might prognosticate a storm or fine weather. I put up an oar, and made the top-sail fast to it to act as a mainsail, and then fixed the main yard-arm as far out over the quarter as I could rig it. Thus I contrived to get my small vessel to move over the water. Of course, through the night I steered by the North star, and in the forenoon of Monday I saw the Isle of Wight, and in the afternoon I could see I was approaching a convoy. As I neared them I put my black handkerchief up on an oar. On seeing a man-of-war brigthe Mutine-I stood towards her, and they soon recognised me, and to my delight I saw them draw towards me. We soon closed off the Owers, and she ran alongside of me in a very pretty style, threw a rope into me, and two or three Midshipmen ran down, laid hold of me, and helped me up the side. Of course, I bowed to the Captain, and stated who I was. The officers of the gunroom invited me down to take some refreshment, and the purser, Mr Morgan, lent me a clean shirt. The Captain questioned me very much about the coast, and promised me that he would take back the boat, as it evidently belonged to a poor man- though I heard afterwards he put her on the beach somewhere on the coast of Sussex. Being near a little gun brig going into Portsmouth, he put me on board her with the Lieutenant in command. I went to the Admiral's |