escaping; but, unhappily, I found that the only way I could follow led
directly up the steep side of a mountain, where I must be exposed to the
view of my pursuers. Could I, however, reach the top, so that I might
once more have only to run down-hill, I might be safe; and I knew that I
could climb up-hill faster than they could. I held on, therefore.
Their object had probably been to take me alive, that they might obtain
information from me as to the movements of the combatants; but seeing
that I might escape them, they halted, and brought their muskets to
their shoulders.

As I turned my head for an instant, I saw what they were about. Yet
even then I did not despair, and on I bounded up the hill. The next
moment I heard the bullets strike the ground round me, and at the same
time felt a peculiar sensation in my leg, as if the cold end of a lance
had entered it. I knew that I was hit, but that no bone or muscle worth
speaking of had been injured. Though wounded, I felt capable of
considerable exertion; and so, casting another look behind me, to
ascertain what my enemies were about,--not dreaming of giving in,--I saw
that they were reloading. Still, I might gain the top of the hill.

Once more the rattle of musketry sounded in my ears; and a very
unpleasant sound it is, for the person at whom the balls are aimed. "A
miss, however, is as good as a mile;" and though two or three bullets
whistled close to my ears, and another went through the sleeve of my
jacket, I was sure that I had escaped this second salvo.

The top of the hill appeared just above me, when I felt myself seized
with faintness, against which I struggled in vain. I staggered for a
few yards farther, and then sank on the ground. I must have lost
consciousness; for the next moment, as it seemed to me, when I opened my
eyes I saw my enemies standing round me.

"He is an Englishman," I heard one of them say.

"We must not kill him now; he has made a brave attempt to escape,"
remarked another.

"Young as he looks, he will probably know some thing our general would
like to hear," observed a third. "We must carry him with us." And
another, still more considerate, advised that my wound should be bound
up, or I might bleed to death.

Thanking them for their good intentions, I produced a handkerchief, with
which, the last speaker assisting me, I bound up my leg. Happily, the
wound was not so serious as it might have been; for the bullet had
p