He hath just had speech once more with the chief rebel, the graybeard they call Lafreniere, and was in raging temper when last we met.

_Caramba_! he even called me an ass, for no more serious fault, forsooth, than that I made the round of my guard unattended.

Hath your darky news for him ?" "Nay; the fellow possesseth not sufficient sense to be a messenger, except it may be a message for his stomach to make his humor better," was the reply.

"Come, trot along now, boy, and mind where you put down those big feet in the passage." I struggled upright in response to his order, assisted by the sharp tap of a boot accompanying it, tripped over a gun barrel one of the guard facetiously inserted between my legs, and went down once more, uttering such howl of terror as could be only partially drowned beneath the uproarious laughter of my merry tormentors.

It developed into a gantlet, yet I ran the line with little damage, and, after much ducking and pleading, managed to regain my position close to the heels of Senor Gonzales before he turned into the passageway, which, as I now perceived, was dimly illumined by means of a single lantern, hung to a blackened upper beam.
"Well, good luck to both of you," called out the young officer of the guard laughingly as we disappeared.