Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/193

 trouble, and to insure his future assistance, I made him a present of my watch, the only valuable I possessed. Two days more were passed in this basket fort, when we were alarmed by the approach of an old peasant; well knowing that the Flemings entertained the utmost horror of the conscription, we passed ourselves off for conscripts: the old man seemed to sympathize in our distresses, and promised to bring us a loaf of bread; but, as it would have been imprudent to have suffered him to depart, and to have waited his return, he was kept in conversation until nearly dark, and, when he left us, we broke up the camp and fled. Scarcely had we gone a mile, following each other at some little distance, when Fox and his master were discovered: the latter advised us to go to a thick wood about two miles east of the house, and gave information of Moitier's return. Soon after taking up this position, the weather set in intensely cold, and, literally clad in armour of ice, we lay listening to the whistling wind, and shivering with exposure to the chilling blast,