After a time orders came and I was marched into the presence of the officers. General Bragg said, "We have concluded to hang you."

I replied, "I deprecate that mode of execution. Do please shoot me."

He then said, "You will also have a trial, and if it results in conviction, of which there is no doubt, you will be hanged in the presence of the army."

The guards were then ordered to take charge of me. My chain was so short that I could only step about ten inches. I could just set my heel in stepping even with the toe of the opposite foot. They brought me to the same old prison. When I entered it, my old friends, the true, tried, and trusted prisoners who still survived, crowded around me. Captain Bruce addressed me in his facetious manner. In prison his wit had beguiled many a tedious hour. His humor was the pure Attic salt.

"Parson Aughey, you are welcome back to my hotel, though you have played us rather a scurvy trick in leaving without giving me or any of us the least inkling of your intention, or settling your bill."

I replied, "Captain, it was hardly right, but I did not like your fare, and your hotel was sadly infested with chinches, chiggers, ticks, and graybacks."

"Well, you do not seem to have fared better since you left, for you have returned."

"Captain, my return is the result of coercion. Some who oppose this principle when applied to

themselves have no scruples in enforcing it upon.

others.

'No rogue e'er felt the halter draw

'With good opinion of the law,'

is an old saw, and the truth of proverbs is seldom affected by the lapse of time. I am your guest by compulsion, but remember I will leave you upon the first opportunity."

Upon hearing this statement, an officer present, named Cecil Hindman, with a bitter imprecation, said that when I next crossed the threshold of that building it would be to go to cross the railroad to the place of execution.

The prisoners gathered around me upon the exit of the officers, and I related to them my adventures. They then informed me of what had occurred during my absence. At roll call the next morning we were missed. Clarke was taken out to guide a company in search of you. The guards on duty during the night were put under arrest. Your method of escape was speedily discovered and the guards were released, as they were not at fault. The floor was spiked down, the guards increased in number, and greater vigilance enjoined. The prisoners were questioned as to whether they knew of your escape or had in any way contributed to effect it. We all positively denied any knowledge of or complicity in the escape. They asked me if I had given the officers any information about their knowledge of our designs and co-operation in effecting them. I told them that I

had positively denied that any except Malone and myself were privy to our plans. Was this right? Is falsehood ever justifiable?

If I had revealed the aid received from my fellowprisoners they would have been severely punished, perhaps some of them capitally, at once. And my fellow-prisoners would have regarded me as a base ingrate, and would not a second time, as they did, have risked their lives to set me free and save my life. We ought to speak every man truth to his neighbor, but those secessionists, thirsting for innocent blood, were in no true sense our neighbors, though too near neighbors, in regard to physical proximity, for our welfare. In order to save life we may take life, and may we not deceive by words, and be guiltless, those who would use their knowledge to destroy the innocent? I asked Benjamin Clarke, when he was remanded to prison, to give us the particulars of the pursuit of Malone and myself by the cavalry and blood-hounds, to which request he assented.

BENJAMIN CLARKE'S STORY.

"You were not missed till roll-call in the morning. Your name was the first on the roll. This man [laying his hand on the shoulder of a prisoner] is a great mimic. When he tries he can beat a mocking bird. He can mimic any man's voice. He can call up any animal or bird when he wants to shoot it. This man, Will Croghan's his name, sung out, 'Here.' Some of us that knowed you was gone looked round, thinkin'

it was your voice. When they got to Malone's name, Jim Benton sung out present, but he wasn't no mimic, and the officer called out agin, Dick Malone, an' nobody answered. He then stopped calling the roll and sent out an orderly. It wasn't long till old Bragg, Hardee, and some other officers come into the prison in a hurry. The officer commenced calling the roll agin. Croghan was afeard to chirp, an' they found that you and Malone was gone. Bragg stormed round a spell, and afore long I was sent for. They told me to mount a horse a nigger was holdin'. I done so, and we all started off. They told me to guide them straight to Paden's mill.

We had twentyThey started with

five cavalry men and forty dogs. that many, seein' they might have to separate to follow different trails. How the hounds did howl and yelp. To give you a chance, I took 'em round by Bull Mountain, up one hill an' down the same, an' up another. They wanted to find some of your cloze in the prison to let the dogs git a scent. I thought Alex. Spear, that Federal prisoner from Ellisville, Illinois, an' you had traded pants, so you could git a dark pair so as to git by the guards, but they wazent none the wizer for me knowin' that. Well, nigh on to 4 o'clock in the evenin' we struck a trail. The hounds follered it lively. I waz awful feared it waz yourn, still I thought you wouldent be sich a fool as to go off on a straight shoot for Fulton, where they took us on our way here, an' where all the roads waz picketed. The trail was fresh, and the hounds got

about a mile ahead. All at once we knowed they had treed their game, an' agin I jist trembled in my boots for fear it waz you. We loped along as fast as we could, but the ground got swampy an' the bushes waz thick, an' drekly we knowed the dogs hed come up with some big varmint, an' it was givin 'em battle, and they waz gittin' the wust of the skrimmage. We hed an awful time to git through the chaparral, an' we had to go out of our way a long trip to git round a sloo. But when we did come up with the dogs they hed killed an awful big bar. But afore he knocked under he'd got his work in on the dogs, an' you may never b'leve me agin ef there wazzent fourteen dogs lyin' dead as herrin's an' some more completely uzed up. The best sentin' hound waz lyin' close to the ded bar, and the bar's jaws was clozed on one of his hind legs like a vise. We got his jaws loose, but the dog's leg waz mashed into a jelly, an' we hed to shoot him to put him out of hiz mizery. Well, these cavalry fellows swore they wazzent goin' to leave till they hed tried some of the bar steaks. They drug the carcass of the bar half a mile to a hummock, an' rolled up logs till they hed made a big log-heap, then sot it on fire, skinned the bar, sliced off the nice steaks, an' jist enjoyed themselves. 'Fore this waz done it waz very dark, an' the cap'n in charge of the squad sed he reckoned they'd best go inter camp fer the night. "Twazent fur from Fulton. 'Bout midnight ten of these fellers stole off to go to Madam Dunderberg's, in Fulton. She kep a bagnio