The Boy Soldier; Or, Garibaldi's Young Captain — page 49: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE BOY SOLDIER; OR, GARIBALDI’'S YOUNG CAPTAIN. 43 “Well, I went in and out of every room, but couldn’t find the prisoner. I felt awful mad, and didn’t know what .to do. I got on to the wall again, and crawled further on, until I got to a dark, gloomy prison house, with strong iron bars over the windows, ‘While doing this, I heard one of the soldiers say that they had removed Teresa out of the colonel’s house to the prison for greater safety when the fight began. But which cell she was confined in I had no notion. “From the distant shouts I began to imagine that our Band was getting the worst cf it, for one of the soldiers said to another that they had better open the magazine, and get out more boxes of ammuni- tion for their use. “This they did, and very carefully. So sure did they feel about the safety of the Fort, that all of them, save one, who stood guard at the gates, pulled off their coats, and began to lug out cart- ridge boxes, *** Now's my time,’ said I, ‘there is no one look- ing,’ and with all the activity I was master of, I ran along the walls towards the prison house. “I must have been seen by the sentry at the gate, for he shouted out, “¢ Halt! Who goes there?’ “T lay flat behind a large stone, but didn’t an- swer, and he fired. ‘‘The bullet just grazed my clothes, and to de- ceive him, I screamed out as if shot dead. ‘“ This seemed to satisfy the guard, and he loaded again, saying, “¢ That was a good shot, was,’ “In an instant the men came out of the magazine, and rushed towards the gate, and I could hear the guard tell his comrades that some deserter, perhaps, had tried to escape, and that he had knocked him off the wall as dead as a herring. “This explanation seemed to satisfy the others, who returned to the magazine again. “Tn the meantime I lay behind the stone, and not far from me could hear a soft, plaintive voice humming a tune. “Tt was the voice of a female, and Iswore to find out who and what she was, ‘““ As I crawled towards the prison I saw a white handkerchief wave through the bars, “‘¢Tt must be Teresa,’ I thought, and this gave me fresh courage, ‘“‘T crawled on until I was right on to the roof of the prison. There were no chimneys to get down, and what to do I did not know. As the moon was obscured, I dropped the end of my rope down, “ She seized it, and tugged it three times, ‘‘¢Tt must be her,’ I thought. ‘“TIn a moment, I heard her singing again. She dared not speak out aloud, for fear of being over- heard by the guard below, so she let me know what to do by putting her words into a song, which I made out was— ““ Happy night! the end has come ; deliverance is nigh |” -“This was répeated three times rather quickly, and in a moment afterwards she sang the same words twice, very slowly, but in each case with great stress on the word ‘ end.’ “For a moment I could not imagine what she meant by repeating, ‘Happy night! the end has I hit him, whoever he come; deliverance is nigh |’ a such different. voices. ““¢ What if I am discovered and betrayed?’ I thought. ‘I don’t understand her meaning.’ “In a few moments all appeared explained, “It appeared to me that by singing the line three times she meant there were three bar's to her window and that by repeating it twice slowly afterwards, she meant to let me understand she was in the second story of the three story building. “This was correct. “Ttu gged at the rope to let her know I understood her meaning, and found that the end was firmly fastened. I tied the other end to a lot of large spikes on the wall and slipped down, slowly and carefully.” “Crikey,” said Fatty, “‘if you’d a fell, Buttons hee “Tf so I should have been smashed to atoms on - the stone court-yard, that’s all.” ‘Tt would have been all up with your cocoa-nut then,” said the Fat Boy. if Silence, beef-eater !” ‘‘Well, as I slipped down the rope the spikes above began to get shaky, and one of them fell on the head of a soldier below. “He looked up ; but the night was then so dark and windy that he didn’t see me; he, perhaps, thought that the gale of wind which had just sprung up had loosened one of the tiles.” “Tt spoilt is ‘tile,’ I should think, and no gammon.” “ Silence, Fatty 1!” “Ttrembled for my very life, for I feared that the. other end of the rope would give way.« ‘Just as I was descending and near the prison’ bars the rope slipped from the spikes, “T fell !” “To the ground ?” “No; I seemed to have had the strength of a lion ; L felt the rope was loose, and I held out my- _ hand to Teresa, whose arms were stretched through the iron bars. » “She clung to me with a grip of steel. “Tt was for a few moments a terrible struggle for life or death. ‘““My eyes began to swin with fear, my brain reeled again, Had she not upheld me as I then was I should have been dashed to pieces ! . “In a few moments I partly recovered myself, - “Teresa was almost fainting. “She had supported all my weight with her out- stretched arms, and I could see her eyes Hashing like some wild woman, “¢Oh, holy mother !’ she said, ‘save the boy.’ | “T felt filled with fresh courage, made a last vigorous effort, and clutched a single bar. : “Oh! the struggle to get up was awful ; it was like a dozen deaths, 5 “T remember little of what took place, for I was so excited. All I know is that when I pulled my- selfinto the window Teresa shrieked out, ““ Good God ! I thank you,’ and fell back into her cell. “‘ Her screams seemed to have excited the atten- tion of some one below, who felt certain that some- thing was up.” “Of course there was, window ?” “ Fatty, we'll put you on half rations if you don’t keep quiet,” “Well, go on Buttons; take a drink of wine,” said Hugh, “it will refresh you.” “T knew that no time was to be lost, so began tugging at the centre bar, and after a time Teresa Wasn't you up at the ‘recovered and assisted me, ~coOpmicnoolk