He had not slept there for many minutes, before there was heard a
most curious noise under the floor of his prison. At first it did
not awaken him, but partially doing so, caused him to move slightly,
and in at half conscious, half dreamy state, to suggest some cause
for the unusual phenomenon. It evidently worked upon his brain and
nervous system, and he dreamed that the executioner had come for
him, that his time for life had already expired, and the noise he
heard was that of the officers and men, come to execute the sentence
that had been pronounced upon him by the military commission.
By degrees the noise gradually increased, and heavy bolts and bars
seemed to be removed, and a gleam of light to stream across the
cell, while the tall form of a man, wrapped in a military cloak,
came up through the floor where a stone slab gave way to the
pressure applied to it from below.
Having gained a footing, the new comer now turned the light of a
dark lantern in the direction of the corner where the prisoner was
sleeping. The figure approached the sleeping soldier, and bending
over him, muttered to himself, half aloud:
"Sleeping, by Heaven! he sleeps as quietly as though he was in his
camp-bedstead, and not even under arrest.
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