against the
first attempts which the Japanese, who we now considered as our mortal
enemies, might make to capture us. In our walks through the valleys
which surrounded the town, these woods had not appeared to us to be
very far off, but we saw now how much we had been deceived. One of the
footpaths which we had remarked during the day as leading directly to
them, we were unable to find in the thick darkness, which shrouded
from our view objects only a few paces distant.

The only resource left to us was to keep ascending, which the
unevenness of the soil, covered as it was with brushwood, rendered
tedious and difficult. After three painful hours passed in this way,
we came at last to the highest ridge of the mountain, and now imagined
that we could go forward on the high level ground, without any great
exertion. But fate had many obstacles and much trouble in store for
us, that we knew not of. We had now got to a part of the mountain
which in many places was covered with snow, and as we did not wish our
trail to be visible to the Japanese, we were obliged to go first to
the one side and then to the other, and often had to retrace our
steps. In this way we expended our strength, and made very little
progress. An hour before daybreak, we struck on a broad road, which
led towards the north, and which was firm and almost free from snow.
As we knew that we could now go on without the fear of leaving our
footprints visible, we rejoiced not a little, and redoubled our speed.
I still felt much pain in my knee and leg, but as we were now on level
ground, it was not to be compared to what I endured whilst ascending
the mountain. We believed that we must now reach the wood in a very
short time, and had made up our minds to rest in one of its thickets,
when suddenly a sailor who chanced to look back, exclaimed, "They are
coming after us on horseback, with lanterns!" and immediately sprang
into an opening by the road side. Startled by this exclamation, we
looked round, and perceived some lights which seemed to be rapidly
approaching us. Seeing that there was no time to be lost, we followed
the sailor's example. For a long way the road led us down the
mountain, without there being either tree or bush to afford us
shelter, or screen us from our pursuers. Soon the day began to break.
If there had been more light at that moment, the Japanese must
inevitably have seen us from the surrounding heights, as there was
nothing which could hid