me Jaubert, as I groped onward by the wall,
and at the same time seizing my right hand. Instantly as she did so, I
heard a rustle just behind me--two quick and violent blows descended on
the back of my head, there was a flash before my eyes, a suppressed
shout of exultation rang in my ears, and I fell insensible to the
ground.

It was some time, on partially recovering my senses, before I could
realize either what had occurred or the situation in which I found
myself. Gradually, however, the incidents attending the
artfully-prepared treachery of Madame Jaubert grew into distinctness,
and I pretty well comprehended my present position. I was lying at the
bottom of a cart, blindfolded, gagged, handcuffed, and covered over by
what, from their smell, seemed to be empty corn sacks. The vehicle, was
moving at a pretty rapid rate, and judging from the roar and tumult
without, through one of the busiest thoroughfares of London. It was
Saturday evening; and I thought, from the character of the noises,
and the tone of a clock just chiming ten, that we were in
Tottenham-court-road. I endeavored to rise, but found, as I might have
expected, that it was impossible to do so; my captors having secured me
to the floor of the cart by strong cords. There was nothing for it,
therefore, but patience and resignation; words easily pronounced, but
difficult, under such circumstances, to realize in practice. My
thoughts, doubtless in consequence of the blows I had received, soon
became hurried and incoherent. A tumultuous throng of images swept
confusedly past, of which the most constant and frequent were the faces
of my wife and youngest child, whom I had kissed in his sleep just
previous to leaving home. Madame Jaubert and James Martin were also
there; and ever and anon the menacing countenance of Levasseur stooped
over me with a hideous expression, and I felt as if clutched in the
fiery grasp of a demon. I have no doubt that the voice which sounded in
my ear at the moment I was felled to the ground must have suggested the
idea of the Swiss--faintly and imperfectly as I caught it. This tumult
of brain only gradually subsided as the discordant uproar of the
streets--which no doubt added to the excitement I was suffering under by
suggesting the exasperating nearness of abundant help which could not be
appealed to--died gradually away into a silence only broken by the
rumble of the cart-wheels, and the subdued talk of the driver and his
compan