Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/120

 and of falling immediate victims to the merciless rage of ferocious blood-hounds, I stood and listened, with my knife in savage grasp, waiting the dreadful issue, when suddenly I felt a glow flush through my veins, which hurried me on with the desperate determination to succeed or make a sacrifice of life in the attempt. We had scarcely reached the turning, when footsteps were again heard; and, in a whispering tone, "Boys," this welcome sound created so sudden a transition from desperation to serenity, from despair to a pleasing conviction of success, that in an instant, all was hope and joy. Reinforced by our two friends, we again returned to our work of mining, with as much cheerfulness and confidence as though already embarked for England. They told us the noise was occasioned by the fall of a knapsack, which Mansell, unable to carry down the rope, had given to Whitehurst, from whom it slipped, and falling upon a hollow sounding bridge, between two lofty ramparts, echoed through the arched passage with sufficient effect to ex