170 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



of the troopers had disappeared, he left his place of 

 concealment and hastened to give the alarm. 



To support the troop of dragoons that had been 

 sent on this hazardous expedition, two battalions and 

 a squadron of French had advanced seven or eight 

 leagues from their own lines, and had taken up a 

 position in a hamlet at about the same distance from 

 Marquinez's cantonments. It was an hour before 

 midnight when the party which had formed the 

 ambuscade joined the main body, after a rapid march 

 over detestable roads and a heavy country. The 

 horses were knocked up, and unable to proceed with- 

 out a few hours' repose. Their captain having 

 reported this to his commanding officer, at the same 

 time that he announced to him the successful issue 

 of the enterprise, received orders to refresh his men 

 and horses, and to hold himself in readiness to march 

 an hour before daybreak. Meantime the prisoners 

 were placed in a room on the ground-floor of the 

 house in which the French colonel was lodged. The 

 door of their temporary prison opened on a large 

 corridor, then used as a guard-room, and the small 

 xinglazed aperture which gave light and air to the 

 apartment was traversed by three massive iron bars, 

 placed parallel to each other, and firmly riveted into 

 the stone wall. For additional security, and to pre- 

 clude all possibility of escape, a sentry was placed in 

 a sort of garden on which the window looked out. 



The young officer who had been taken at the same 



