Mr.Myers said that he could manage this for him, and at once went and obtained the loan of a pony from another officer who was just going down into the battery.

A quarter of an hour afterwards, having taken the precaution to put some biscuits and cold meat into their haversacks, and to fill their flasks with rum and water, they started and rode across the plain to the Sardinian camp.
The lieutenant had obtained the news of the proposed reconnaissance from an officer with whom he was acquainted on the Sardinian staff.
The news, however, had been kept secret, as upon previous occasions so many officers off duty had accompanied these reconnaissances as to constitute an inconvenience.

On the present occasion the secret had been so well kept that only some four or five pleasure-seekers had assembled when the column, consisting of 400 cavalry, started.
Jack, accustomed only to the flat plains of southern and western Russia, was delighted with the beauty of the valley through which they now rode.

It was beautifully wooded, and here and there Tartar villages nestled among the trees.

These had long since been deserted by the inhabitants, and had been looted by successive parties of friends and foes, of everything portable.
Presently they turned out of the valley they had first passed through and followed a road over a slope into another valley, similar to the first.