as quite down. We could talk but little,
as it was especially important not to arouse any suspicion among the
sentries; as far as I could make out, the adventurers employed the
interval very wisely, in taking in supplies of both creature and
spiritual comforts, dividing their attention about equally between
supper and devotional exercises. At last the moment came, and they bade
us farewell; the good parson bestowing upon my unworthy self a really
pathetic benediction. If my own "God-speed" was less solemn, I know it
was not less sincere. Then I went to bed, and as another twenty minutes
passed without my hearing a sound, I began to think the fugitives were
well away. I was just dropping off to sleep, when I heard voices in the
yard speaking loud and hastily, though I could not catch the words. Then
there was a scuffle of feet above, and a scrambling fall beyond the
right hand wall. After a few minutes silence, quick steps came along the
passage, and the door of No. 22 was opened. The visitors soon went away;
but we did not know what watch might be set, so essayed no communication
with our unlucky neighbor till the morning was far advanced. The
adventure had miscarried in this wise.

When they mounted into the empty attic they found the window invitingly
open, and, after waiting a few minutes to humor the moon, the soldier
volunteered to reconnoiter. He reached the ridge without the slightest
difficulty, and crawled along till he could see his way clear to the
window they wished to attain. Then he returned undiscovered and reported
progress. Now the first mistake was making a reconnaissance at all:
_vestigia nulla retrorsum_, ought to have been the word that night, if
ever. The second and graver error was, allowing the parson to go first,
when they started in earnest. The light, lithe body of the soldier could
glide over the roof with the silent swiftness of a cat "on the rampage;"
the same animal, shod with walnut-shells, suggests itself as an apt,
though irreverent comparison for the priestly fugitive. To use the
narrator's own words--occasionally more forcible than elegant:

"You might have heard him two blocks off, squattering and spluttering
over the shingles."

Those miserable machines, when put to the proof, made more noise than
even we had imputed to them. The prisoners over whose heads the parson
passed, heard the slipping and scratching quite plainly, though the
attic floor was between them. Nevertheless he h