ng the arrival of the other refugees, who had
discovered the plot just in time to keep out of the toils. Marshaled in
some semblance of military array, we were marched down the mountain,
over the frozen ground, to the house of old Roderic Norton. The Yankee
officers were sent to an upper room, while the refugees were guarded
below, under the immediate eyes of the soldiery. Making the best of our
misfortune, our original trio bounced promptly into a warm bed, which
had been recently deserted by some members of the family, and secured a
good night's rest.

Lieutenant Knapp, who had imprudently indulged in frozen chestnuts on
the mountain-side, was attacked with violent cramps, and kept the
household below stairs in commotion all night humanely endeavoring to
assuage his agony. In the morning, although quite recovered, he
cunningly feigned a continuance of his pains, and was left behind in the
keeping of two guards, who, having no suspicion of his deep designs,
left their guns in the house and went out to the spring to wash. Knapp,
instantly on the alert, possessed himself of the muskets, and breaking
the lock of one, by a powerful effort he bent the barrel of the other,
and dashed out through the garden. His keepers, returning from the
spring, shouted and rushed indoors only to find their disabled pieces.
They joined our party later in the day, rendering a chapfallen account
of their detached service.

We had but a moderate march to make to the headquarters of the
battalion, where we were to spend the night. Our guards we found kindly
disposed toward us, but bitterly upbraiding the refugees, whom they
saluted by the ancient name of Tories. Lieutenant Cogdill, in command of
the expedition, privately informed us that his sympathies were entirely
ours, but as a matter of duty he should guard us jealously while under
his military charge. If we could effect our escape thereafter we had
only to come to his mountain home and he would conceal us until such
time as he could despatch us with safety over the borders. These
mountain soldiers were mostly of two classes, both opposed to the war,
but doing home-guard duty in lieu of sterner service in the field.
Numbers were of the outlier class, who, wearied of continual hiding in
the laurel brakes, had embraced this service as a compromise. Many were
deserters, some of whom had coolly set at defiance the terms of their
furloughs, while others had abandoned the camps in Virginia, and,