it is termed, and set forth on our road to Verdun.

There had been a thaw; it now blew hard and rained; the roads were deep with mud. When we halted to change guards, the chain was taken off, and we were allowed to walk with only the handcuffs. In the afternoon we arrived, with shoes torn to pieces, at a small fortified town called Blamont. The prison was a kind of barn; but the straw looked clean, and for our cheer bread and water were supplied. We rose, after a night in wet clothes, stiff with cold. My throat was sore; the doctor was also ill; our hats, which had been used as nightcaps, were of every shape; handcuffed as before, heavily ironed and heavy-hearted, we reached Phalsburg completely bare of foot. We sold two new linen shirts, and with the money so obtained purchased two pairs of strong, well - nailed, clodhopping shoes, which, although previously in use, lasted us all the way to Verdun.

The jailer's wife at Phalsburg provided us with soup, beef, and vegetables, and we dined well; what remained of our money procured us a bed. On finding that we were English, the jailer seemed to ponder something mysterious, and there was much whispering between him and his wife. When this was ended, he told us to follow him, but first required our word of honour that, until our arrival at Verdun, we would mention nothing of what we were about to see.

He took up a bunch of keys, and descended some steps into a courtyard, which we

crossed. We followed, entered a decent apartment, and were told to wait, while he went forward by himself to another which communicated with our halting-place.

There is a custom in France that if any one at the theatre turns his back upon the scene he is held guilty of a serious rudeness, and may be expelled from the building. During my residence at Verdun, Mr Simpson, a Scotsman, surgeon of H.M. sloop Ranger, and now a prisoner of war, recently arrived at the depot, and, therefore, unacquainted with its rules of good manners, had dined one evening with friends who made up a party for the play. Being exhilarated by champagne, and unacquainted with the language, he attended little to the performance, and finally turned round to catch sight of a young lady who had attracted his notice. After some noise and confusion, his fault was condoned. But when the Emperor's bust was presented, Mr Simpson, by vigorous hisses and groans, again drew the eyes of the spectators upon him. The gendarmes at once took him in charge, and dragged him before General Wirion. He was placed in secret confinement, and not a soul was allowed to go near him. Orders from Paris arrived; he was secretly removed, and since a twelvemonth, had been given up as lost.

The jailer returned, and bade us go into the farther room. There stood a gaunt red-haired man, the shadow of our former acquaintance, Dr Simpson. On

beholding once more two of his countrymen, he shed tears of joy. He told us that he had been hurried from Verdun by night in a close carriage, believing that his punishment I would be death. In solitary confinement here he received no food but bread and water; to aggravate his sufferings, his rest at night, during the first six months, was of set purpose disturbed; the jailer was threatened with dismissal if he relaxed the rules imposed upon him. Simpson spoke now a broken mixture of French and German, uttered with a broad Scots accent; he had half forgotten, he declared, his native English. Luckily he had some money, of which he bestowed four crowns on us, no slight assistance towards our journey. Next morning we shook hands with him again, received some letters which he had written since our previous visit, bade him farewell, and attended the gendarmes who were waiting to put on our ruffles.

At Luneville-two days later -we were searched; but neither the money stowed away in our shoes, nor poor Simpson's letters, hidden in the lining of my hat, fell into our inquisitors' hands. We set out for Nancy not only handcuffed but chained, and had the honour to lead the van of twenty-four galley-slaves, in their proper dresses-most of dresses-most of them young conscripts who had deserted-on their way to some seaport. This was the only occasion on which I felt my pride really humbled: in the streets of every town, and from door to door, these fellows solici

ted alms-alms often offered to ourselves, and always refused in favour of our companions in irons. It was a joy to us to escape the streets of Nancy and enter our prison.

We parted from these gentry next morning. In the prison of St Mihiel was a girl of eighteen, beautiful as an angel and as innocent, who had been condemned to suffer on the guillotine the day after our arrival. Her uncle, in revenge for her resistance to his attempts against her honour, had charged her with plotting and all but procuring his death by poison. At a later date I learnt that his own confession revealed his guilt and vindicated her memory. On the morning of her execution I saw her seated on her straw mattress, awaiting the gendarmes, and seemingly quite unconcerned by her fate; before she left the prison the sergeant cut off her long, fair hair.

Never shall I forget the

farewell to her fellow-prisoners; all who were present shed tears; and at that moment I could gladly have given an arm to save her life.

We were now within seven leagues of Verdun. The sleet drove in our faces as we marched on that last day; our hands, chained together, were black with the cold. On entering the town we were spared the mortification of going through the streets in the view of our countrymen; we were conducted by the ramparts to the citadel, and were lodged in the round tower. Here, seeing no one but the jailer and the gendarmes, we spent a month each in a

separate chamber; food was supplied at treble its honest price; fires there were none; we slept each on a straw mattress, with a single blanket for covering; sleet and snow beat in upon us through the grated window; I have often

parted from my blanket to stuff it between the bars, and so allay the intensity of the cold. Of various punishments which I have endured, this lifeless exposure to an icy temperature was one of the least endurable.

The order at last arrived for our removal to the dungeons of Bitche. The roads were deep with snow; a cruel frost made everything rigid; an open cart, in which no straw had been provided, was used for our conveyance. Before we set out a friend was permitted to visit us, and settle the jailer's bill. This good chance procured us a supply of money in gold, which we stowed away in stockings prepared for such an occasion: they were of coarse worsted, with strong tape, as broad as a 20-franc piece, sewed along the seam- by which contrivance our gold escaped the rapacity of the general, who had ordered us to be stripped to the shirt. The soles of our shoes, the covered buttons of our clothes, were examined. This over, we were handcuffed, chained to the cart, and escorted out of town by five gendarmes.

Such a formidable mounted guard over two prisoners of war chained in a cart made it seem as though we were desperate characters. Our convoy advanced at a walking pace; our feet, through want of exercise, became so cold that we feared they would be frostbitten; our teeth chattered all

The

the way to Marslatours, twentyone miles from Verdun. cart stopped near the church. We got out, but could not stand. The irons were taken off, and what with rubbing our legs and beating our hands, we found the use of our limbs, and could follow the jailer to our prison for the night. Conceive our astonishment when we were led to a vault under the parish church. In a short time the jailer brought us food and drink, a lamp, and clean straw, which, before leaving us, he flung in a corner near the door. After our repast, we thought to shift our resting place away from the cold of the entrance; but behold! the more sheltered nook had already its occupants in heaped-up human skulls and bones. In general a sailor is the most superstitious of mankind. It was lucky that I had the doctor by my side, who sought to banish my fears by his cheerfulness, and even to improve the occasion by an anatomical lecture.

The morning was fine and frosty. We were permitted to walk, and without our handcuffs. The two gendarmes who now conducted us were welldisposed, and one of them, a

good-natured fellow, entertained his prisoners with anecdotes of Boney, one of which may bear to be recorded. The Emperor with his staff was passing through Marslatours, which is a small village, to join his army on the other side of the Rhine. He halted unexpectedly to breakfast at what, though a miserable hovel, was the best inn of the place. In every village a mayor and his deputy perform like functions and with as much ceremony and consequence with those of the chief citizens of the largest cities. On the Emperor's arrival, Mr Mayor was sought to compliment his sovereign in a speech worthy of Marslatours. He was discovered, like Cincinnatus, at the plough-tail. He ran home to put on his best coat with the sash-badge of his dignity—and arrived in the presence just in time to anticipate the Emperor's departure. In vain he tried to utter a word, and again in vain; bowing and scraping he stood fascinated by Buonaparte's scrutinising black eyes-an unhappy squirrel in the gaze of the rattlesnake. Close behind the trembling mayor stood an old shoemaker, in figure a true Don Quixote, clad in his working dress. Why don't you speak, you fool?" he muttered from time to time to his leader.

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At last his patience gave way; he pushed the mayor aside, advanced, with his left hand removed his greasy cotton night-cap, with his right lifted the horn spectacles from his nose, made his bow, and delivered the oration: "Emperor, you are on your way to thrash the Prussian rogues once more. I hope soon to see you return crowned with glory; and I have nothing more to say, but that Cæsar and Alexander

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were Jeans-f- -s in comparison with you." The Emperor laughed, and inquired of the old man whether he had any sons. Yes; four were in the army-two of these in the Guards." Their names were taken down, and the honest shoemaker soon saw them raised to the rank of officers, and found himself provided with a comfortable pension.

We reached Metz about three o'clock, and were given a room to ourselves, and a good bed in the military prison. Four days later we beheld for the first time the black fortress of Bitche, our future residence. It was nearly dark before we entered the town, and quite so by the time we got up the zigzags to the fort. We passed several drawbridges; at the guard - house our irons were taken off, and thereupon we were escorted to the cavern.

A confused noise from underground was audible as we approached. When the door was opened, a universal shout of

"Door-o! door-o!" greeted us. We descended fifty steps, and found ourselves in-the infernal

regions. Lights burned in