with which I might gain an estancia, kept by an Englishman, situated on the left bank of the Parana. There I should find, without doubt, vessels which would transport me incognito to Buenos Ayres or Montevideo. He found me a guide and horses, and we set out across the country to avoid discovery. We had nearly fifty miles to go, which could be performed, by keeping at a gallop, in the half of one night. When the day broke we were in sight of the Ibiqui, at the distance of about half-a-mile from the river; the guide told me to stop there, in a sort of maquis in which we were, whilst he went to see how the land lay. I consented; he quitted me, and I was left alone. I dismounted, hooked the bridle of my horse to the branch of a tree, laid myself down at the foot of it, and waited quietly two or three hours. After this, finding that my guide did not reappear, I got up and resolved to gain the outskirts of the maquis, which was not far off; but at the moment I reached the outskirts, I heard a gun fired from behind me, and the hissing of a ball in the grass. I turned sharp round, and saw a detachment of horsemen, who were pursuing me sabre in hand; this detachment was already between me and my horse -it was impossible to fly, useless to defend myself— I surrendered.

CHAPTER XV.

THE STRAPPADO.

THEY bound my hands behind me, and placed me on horseback; they then tied my feet as they had done my hands, fastening them to the girths of the saddle. It was in this style I was taken back to Gualeguay, where, as will be seen, worse treatment awaited me.

No one will accuse me of being too tender to myself; and yet, I confess that I shudder every time that circumstance of my life is recalled to my mind. Being led into the presence of Don Leonardo Milan, I was

required by him to denounce those who had furnished me with means of escape. It may be concluded that Ideclared I had alone prepared, and alone carried my flight into execution; then, as I was bound, and Don Leonardo Milan had nothing to fear, he came up angrily to me, and began to strike me with his whip; after which he renewed his demands, and I repeated my denials. He then ordered me to be taken to prison, adding a few words in a whisper to my conductors. These words were an order to put me to the torture.

On arriving at the chamber destined for me, my guards, in consequence of the whispered order, leaving my hands tied behind my back, passed a fresh cord round my wrists, turned the other end of it round a joist, and pulling it towards them, they suspended me at about four or five feet from the ground. Don Leonardo Milan then entered my prison, and asked me if I would confess. I could do nothing but spit in his face, and I gave myself that satisfaction.

"It is very well!" said he, leaving the chamber. "When the prisoner shall please to confess, you will call me, and when he has confessed, he shall be let down to the ground again." After which he went out. I remained two hours suspended in this manner. All the weight of my body hung by my bleeding wrists and my dislocated shoulders. My whole body burned like a furnace; at every instant I begged for water, and my guards, more humane than my executioner, gave me some; but the water, on entering my stomach, dried up, as if it had been thrown upon a bar of red hot iron. No idea can be formed of what I suffered but by reading the tortures inflicted upon prisoners in the Middle Ages. At the end of the two hours, my guards took pity on me, or believed me dead, for they let me down. I fell flat, at full length. I was nothing but an inert mass, without any feeling but heavy, severe pain-a dead body, or nearly so.

In this situation, and without my being conscious of what they were doing to me, they put me in fetters.

I had travelled fifty miles across the marshes with my hands and feet bound. The mosquitos, numerous and enraged at this season, had made my hands and face one single sore. I had undergone two hours of frightful torture, and when I came to myself, I was bound, side by side, with an assassin. Although in the midst of the most atrocious torments I had not said a single word, and that, besides, he had not been concerned in my flight, Don Jacinto Andreas was imprisoned; the inhabitants of the country were quite in a state of alarm.

As for myself, but for the cares of a woman, who was to me an angel of charity, I should have died. She scorned fear, and came to the succour of the poor tortured prisoner. Her name was Madame Alleman. Thanks to this heavenly benefactress, I wanted for nothing in my imprisonment.

A few days after, the governor, finding it was useless to endeavour to make me speak, and convinced that I would die rather than denounce one of my friends, did not probably dare to take upon himself the responsibility of that death, and caused me to be conveyed to the capital of the province, Bajada. I remained there two months in prison, after which the governor desired me to be informed I was at liberty to leave the province. Although I profess opinions opposed to those of Echague, and that I have, more than once since that day, fought against him, I do not wish to conceal the obligations I owe him; and I should wish, even now, that I had it in my power to prove my gratitude for all he has done for me, particularly for my restoration to liberty. At a later period fortune threw into my hands all the military leaders of the province of Gualeguay, and all were set at liberty without the least injury to their persons or their property.

As for Don Leonardo Milan, I would not even see him, for fear his presence, by recalling to me what I had suffered, should make me commit some action unworthy of myself.

CHAPTER XVI.

A JOURNEY IN THE PROVINCE OF RIO-GRANDE.

FROM Bajada I took passage in an Italian brigantine, Captain Ventura. He was a worthy, commendable man in all respects; he treated me with chivalric generosity, and conveyed me to the mouth of the Iguann, an affluent of the Parana, where I embarked for Montevideo in a balandre commanded by Pascal Carbone. I was in the way of good fortune; he also treated me admirably.

Instances of good fortune, like misfortunes, came in troops; for the present I had done with the latter, and the former succeeded each other without interruption. At Montevideo I found a crowd of friends, at the head of whom I must reckon Jean Baptiste Cuneo and Napoléon Castellini. Soon after Rossetti, whom it may be remembered I had left at Montevideo, came to rejoin me; he arrived from Rio-Grande, where he had been admirably received by the proud republicans.

At Montevideo my proscription still held good. My resistance against the lancions, and the numbers we had killed of them, formed a pretext that was at least specious. I was forced, therefore, to remain concealed in the house of my friend, Pazante, where I resided a month. My seclusion, besides, was rendered endurable by the visits of so many compatriots, who, at this period of prosperity and peace, had established themselves in the country, and exercised a generous hospitality towards their friends of the Old World. War, particularly the siege of Montevideo, changed the condition of most of them, and from good, as it was, made it bad and even worse. Poor people! I have pitied them many times; unfortunately I could do nothing better than pity them.

At the end of a month, the time for our journey being come, Rossetti and I set out for Rio-Grande. Our journey was to be performed on horseback, to my great delight and pleasure. We travelled, as it is

called, à escotero. Let me explain what that manner of travelling is, which, for rapidity, leaves the post far behind, however fast it may be in civilized countries.

Suppose there are two, three, or four of the party, they travel with a score of horses accustomed to follow those that are mounted; when the traveller feels his nag is fatigued, he dismounts, passes his saddle on to the back of another free horse, mounts, gallops three or four leagues, then quits it for another, and so on till the time they have fixed upon for halting; the fatigued horses get rest whilst continuing the journey, by being delivered from their saddles and riders.

During the short halt horsemen make for the purpose of changing their horses, the whole herd snap a few bunches of grass, and drink, if there is any water; the real repasts are made only twice a day, morning and evening.

The

We arrived thus at Pirantinino, the seat of the government of Rio-Grande; the capital was really PortoAllegro; but as the capital was in the hands of the imperialists, the seat of the republic was at Pirantinino. Pirantinino is certainly one of the most beautiful countries in the world, with its two regions—its region of plains and its region of mountains. region of the plains is completely tropical; there grow the banana, the sugar-cane, and the orange. Among the branches of these trees climb the bell-serpent, the black serpent, the coral-serpent; there, as in the jungles of India, bound the tiger, the jaguar, and the puma, an inoffensive lion of the size of a large dog of the St. Bernard breed.

The region of the mountains is temperate, and like the beautiful climate of Nice; there they cultivate the peach, the pear, and the plum-all the fruits of Europe; there rise those magnificent forests, of which no pen can give an exact description, with their pines, straight as the masts of ships, two hundred feet high, and whose stems five or six men can scarcely embrace. In the shade of these pines grow the laquaros, gigantic reeds