"Russia?"

"No; certainly not—England."

"Whence from last?"

"From Bregenz."

"And from Constance by Lindau?" asked
he quickly, as he read from a slip of paper he
had just drawn from his belt.

I assented, but not without certain misgivings,
as I saw so much was known as to my movements.

"Now for your passport. Let me see it,"
said the corporal again. "Just so," said he,
folding it up. "Travelling on foot, and marked
'suspected.'"

Though he muttered these words to his companion,
I perceived that he cared very little for
my having overheard them.

"Suspected of what, or by whom?" asked I,
angrily.

Instead of paying any attention to my question,
the two men now conversed together in a
low tone and confidentially.

"Come," said I, with an assumed boldness,
"if you have quite done with that passport of
mine, give it to me, and let me pursue my
journey."

So eager were they in their own converse,
that this speech, too, was unheeded; and now,
grown rasher by impunity and impatience, I
stepped stoutly forward, and attempted to take
the passport from the soldier's hand.

"Sturm und Gewitter!" swore out the
fellow, while he struck me sharply on the
wrist, "do you mean to try force with us?"
And the other drew his sabre, and flourishing it
over his head, held the point of it within a few
inches of my chest.

I cannot imagine whence came the courage
that now filled my heart, for I know I am not
naturally brave, but I felt for an instant that I
could have stormed a breach; and, with an
insulting laugh, I said, "Oh, of course, cut me
down. I am unarmed and defenceless. It is
an admirable opportunity for the display of
Austrian chivalry."

"Bey'm Henker! It's very hard not to slice
off his ear," said the soldier, seeming to ask
leave for this act of valour.

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

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

"I 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 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 great 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 "valour medal," for what they had
done. Pensions, I hinted, were difficult in the
present state of their finances, but rank and
honour 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 thought I heard the
words Bregenz and Feldkirch interchanged,
giving me to surmise that they were discussing
to which place they should repair. My faint
hope of returning to the former town was,
however, soon extinguished, as the corporal,
turning to me, said, "Our orders are to bring
you alive to head-quarters. We'll do our best;
but if, in crossing these torrents, you prefer to
be drowned, it's no fault of ours."

"Do you mean by that," cried I, "that I am
to be dragged through the water in this
fashion?"

"I mean that you are to come along as best
you may."

"It is all worthy of you, quite worthy!"
screamed I, in a voice of wildest rage. "You
reserve all your bravery for those who cannot
resist you and you are right, for they are your
only successes. The Turks beat you"—here
they chucked me close up, and dashed into the
stream. "The Prussians beat you!" I was
now up to my waist in water. "The Swiss
beat you!" Down I went over head and ears.
"The French always—thrashed you"—down
again—"at Ulm—Auster—litz—Aspern"—
nearly suffocated, I yelled out, "Wagram!"—
and down I went, never to know any further
consciousness till I felt myself lying on the
soaked and muddy road, and heard a gruff voice
"Come along—we don't intend to pass
the night here!"