Page:Statement of the attempted rescue of General Lafayette from Olmutz.djvu/22

 your horse.” The man clutched the money, but resisted and would not give up his horse—two or three others riding up together, it was evident all struggle would be useless. The soldiers were now at hand, and he surrendered without further effort. They placed him between two rows of fixed bayonets; and with an ever increasing croud of spectators, marched back to the fortress.

It is now time to turn to the other parties in this adventure. General Lafayette, it will be remembered, had left his two deliverers on the ground and ridden off at their repeated request, not knowing exactly the direction, but hoping they would soon overtake him. He had not proceeded far before he came to a fork in the road, and took one he guessed to be in the direction of the frontiers. It proved to be the wrong one, in which he continued to ride rapidly for many miles; at length when his good horse was much jaded, he approached a village nearly thirty miles off, and he determined to procure, if possible, another horse, and addressed himself to an honest looking country-man in the outskirts of the village, stating that he was in want of a guide and a horse to take him on his hurried journey, and inquiring if the man would assist to procure them, without his