state of dampness, the clayey soil
being in consequence so much cut up, notwithstanding the small amount of
traffic which seemed to pass over it, that it had become almost
impracticable for foot-passengers. Here and there an old tree-stump
projected out of the ground, while in other places the stumps had been
removed without filling in the corresponding hole. These holes were now
full of water, and as they sometimes occurred in places where there was
a general depression of the ground, flooded by the heavy rain of the
previous night, their presence only became known when one of the party
floundered in and found himself, if lucky enough to avoid going head
over heels, and so securing entire immersion, up to the waist in muddy
water of about the consistency of pea-soup. To add still farther to the
discomfort of the journey, the ground was excessively slippery, so that,
what with one difficulty and another, we made but very slow progress.

We had reached and become involved in an exceptionally bad spot--a
spring apparently rendering the clay so soft that the entire road for
about thirty yards had been worked into a perfect quagmire, into which
we sank above our knees at every step, the tenacious clay holding our
feet almost as though they had been in a vice--when, without the
slightest warning of any kind, a withering volley of musketry was poured
in upon the devoted band from the bushes on both sides of the road, and
while the smoke still enveloped us out dashed some thirty or forty
Corsicans, armed, some only with their clubbed muskets, others
flourishing in addition long double-edged knives of a most bloodthirsty
appearance.

Every man of us went down before that deadly discharge; some being
killed outright, while a few, myself among the number, were only
wounded. But the tragedy was soon completed; hampered as we were with
the difficulties of the road, and disabled by our wounds, resistance was
impossible, and before the smoke of the musketry discharge had cleared
away every Frenchman had received the _coup-de-grace_. I also should
undoubtedly have received my quietus, had I not had the presence of mind
to exclaim in French, just as a stalwart mountaineer was bending over me
with his long glittering blade upraised, that I was an Englishman. The
man hesitated for an instant, and that slight pause saved me. I rapidly
explained who and what I was, and another individual, apparently the
leader of the band, approach