rning, and were partially destroyed. I
observed also great numbers of pikes and pikeheads amongst the debris.

At the entrance to the town the French boy took me to the house of his
relatives, and handed me my saddlebags. These French people told me they
had been much ill-treated, notwithstanding their French nationality.
They showed me their broken furniture, and they assured me that they had
been robbed of everything of any value.

I then shouldered my saddlebags, and walked through the smoking and
desolate streets towards the Bowmont House Hotel.

I had not proceeded far before a man with long grey hair and an
enormous revolver rode up to me, and offered to carry my saddlebags. He
then asked me who I was; and after I told him, he thought a few moments,
and then said, "Well, sir, you must excuse me, but if you are a British
officer, I can't make out what on earth you are doing at Jackson just
now." I could not but confess that this was rather a natural idea, and
that my presence in this burning town must have seemed rather odd, more
especially as I was obliged to acknowledge that I was there entirely of
my own free will, and for my own amusement.

Mr Smythe, for so this individual was named, then told me, that if I was
really the person I represented myself, I should be well treated by all;
but that if I could not prove myself to be an English officer, an event
would happen which it was not difficult to foresee, and the idea caused
a disagreeable sensation about the throat.

Mr Smythe then gave me to understand that I must remain a prisoner for
the present. He conducted me to a room in the Bowmont House Hotel, and I
found myself speedily surrounded by a group of eager and excited
citizens, who had been summoned by Smythe to _conduct my examination_.

At first they were inclined to be disagreeable. They examined my
clothes, and argued as to whether they were of English manufacture.
Some, who had been in London, asked me questions about the streets of
the metropolis, and about my regiment. One remarked that I was "_mighty
young for a lootenant-colonel_."

When I suggested that they should treat me with proper respect until I
was proved to be a spy, they replied that their city had been brutally
pillaged by the Yankees, and that there were many suspicious characters
about.

Everything now looked very threatening, and it became evident to me that
nothing would relieve the minds of these men so much as a hanging ma