not to slice off his ear," said the
soldier, seeming to ask leave for this act of valor.

"Get out your cords," said the corporal; "we 're losing too much time
here."

"Am I a prisoner, then?" asked I, in some trepidation.

"L suspect you are, and likely to be for some time to come," was the
gruff answer.

"On what charge--what is alleged against me?" cried I, passionately.

"What has sent many a better-looking fellow to Spielberg," was the
haughty rejoinder.

"If I _am_ your prisoner," said I, haughtily,--"and I warn you at
once of your peril in daring to arrest a British subject travelling
peacefully--You are not going to tie my hands! You are not going to
treat me as a felon?" I screamed out these words in a voice of wildest
passion, as the soldier, who had dismounted for the purpose, was now
proceeding to tie my wrists together with a stout cord, and in a manner
that displayed very little concern for the pain he occasioned me.

As escape was totally out of the question, I threw myself upon the last
resource of the injured. I fell back upon eloquence. I really wish I
could remember even faintly the outline of my discourse; for though
not by any means a fluent German, the indignation that makes men poets
converted me into a greater master of prose, and I told them a vast
number of curious, but not complimentary, traits of the land they
belonged to. I gave, too, a rapid historical sketch of their campaigns
against the French, showing how they were always beaten, the only
novelty being whether they ran away or capitulated. I reminded them
that the victory over _me_ would resound through Europe, being the
only successful achievement of their arms for the last half-century. I
expressed a fervent hope that the corporal would be decorated with the
"Maria Theresa," and his companion obtain the "valor medal," for what
they had done. Pensions, I hinted, were difficult in the present state
of their finances, but rank and honor certainly ought to await them.
I don't know at what exact period of my peroration it was that I was
literally "pulled up," each of the horsemen holding a line fastened to
my wrists, and giving me a drag forward that nearly carried me off my
feet, and flat on my face. I stumbled, but recovered myself; and now saw
that, bound as I was, with a gendarme on each side of me, it required
all the activity I could muster, to keep my legs.

Another whispered conversation here took place across me, and I t