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probation, took some refreshment; found our friend was already better, and each retired (happy as any creature could be) to his bed, – My God! what a paradise! It is not in my power to express, or to give any idea of the delight and happiness I felt, at being once more in a comfortable bed, with every thing neat and clean about me. This was our thirteenth night without stripping or resting, except the preceding one in the hay-loft. I need not observe, that we remained in bed most part of the next day.” * * * *

“At a little before day-light on the 14th, we entered a wood, and found a convenient place to conceal ourselves. We conjectured we were nearly five leagues from Arras^[1]. At about eleven, we were alarmed by the noise and whistling of a fowler with a dog, and in a few minutes we heard the report of his piece; the shot rattled through the bushes in which we lay, and a partridge perched close to us. This circumstance alarmed us prodigiously, as we could hear the man and dog advancing towards the very spot. To move would have been imprudent, since he was so close, that it was impossible to avoid being discovered. We waited the event, without the smallest hope of escaping detection – the dog advanced – flushed the partridge nearly at our feet – the fowler close to us: fortunately the bird took an opposite direction to the spot where we remained concealed, the master and dog followed, and in a few minutes relieved us from the consternation they had thrown us into.”

The wanderers subsequently passed through Nieuville, a municipal town, by day-light; crossed the river Canche in a ferry-boat; and at length took up their quarters in a barn not far from Estaples, from which they sallied towards the sea coast, at noon on the 18th September, Captain O’Brien’s narrative now runs thus:

“We kept advancing towards the sand-hills with great celerity, little suspecting that the moment was near at hand, when all hope of regaining our native soil would be destroyed. – Every pleasure which we had anticipated on our arrival there, the visiting of our friends, our advancement in our profession – in fact, every thing pleasing to the human mind which we had indulged and cherished during our long and fatiguing journey, was soon to be frustrated. But to proceed. We had now a poor sorry village to pass; and at the very last house, Mr.Ashworth expressed a desire to ask for a draught of water, as he felt excessively low: On these occasions every one was consulted – none of us saw any danger at that moment arising from this circumstance, having passed through the village, and by a number of people, without the smallest inconvenience. He accordingly entered the house, and we advanced slowly, waiting his return. He appeared to be a long

1. The chief town of the department du pas de Calais, province of Artois.