e Burgundy from the count's
cellar. You are to eat two good meals, and drink a third of a bottle
at each of them. Your wounds are not in themselves serious, and the
only thing that ails you is loss of blood. We must risk a little
accession of fever for the sake of giving you strength. When you have
had your supper, you had best both get to sleep, if you can, for an
hour or two. Whatever arrangements we make will be for about two
o'clock in the morning. And now good-bye for the present; keep up your
spirits, and remember that even should any unexpected accident upset
our plans for to-night, we will carry them out to-morrow night, as the
court-martial will not take place till the afternoon, and there will
be at least twenty-four, probably forty-eight hours, between the
sentence and its execution."

So saying, the doctor took his departure, leaving the lads far more
cheerful and confident than they had been when he entered. He seemed
indeed to regard the success of the attempt which would be made for
their evasion as secured. The meal, which consisted of some strong and
nourishing soup, and a dish of well-cooked meat, shortly arrived, and
Dick, after partaking of it, and drinking his prescribed allowance of
Burgundy, announced that he felt a man again, and ready for a tussle
with the commandant. After his meal he dozed quietly, for some hours,
until aroused by the arrival of supper which consisted again of soup
with some poached eggs served on vegetables.

Jack had not tried to sleep, but had enjoyed a pipe which the doctor
had, with tobacco, handed to him, his own having been confiscated upon
his entrance into the prison. After supper, however, he threw himself
upon the straw and slept soundly, until awakened by a hand being
placed on his shoulder. He leaped to his feet, and saw the warder
beside him. The man carried a lantern. The candle with which the boys
had been furnished by the doctor's arrangement had burned out. Jack
aroused his comrade, and the two followed the warder, who led the way
along the corridor and down the stairs into the courtyard of the
prison.

The man did not walk with any particular caution, and the lads judged
from his movements that he had no fear whatever of interruption. The
door of the guard-room stood open, and by the light of the fire which
blazed within, they could see the soldiers lying about in a drunken
sleep. At the gate itself the sentry on duty was sitting on the ground
with his b