Being helpless, I said I
would go quietly. Notwithstanding this, he bound my wrists behind me,
then with a strip of cloth blindfolded me. Taking me by the arm, he led
me through the forest for a distance impossible to calculate. I think,
however, we walked not more than ten minutes. There was a stop and a
whispered parley; a pause of a few minutes, and a further conference,
which I partially heard. The commander before whom I must be taken was
not ready to receive me. I should be placed in a tent, and a guard set
over me.
"This was done. I asked that the cord, which hurt my wrists, might be
removed, but instead, my ankles were tied together, and I sat there on
the ground, leaning against a pole at the back of the tent. Here my
conductor left me, and I heard him give orders to those without to
maintain a strict watch, but to hold no communication with me.
"I imagine that the tent I occupied stood back to back with the tent of
the commander, for after some time I heard the sound of voices, and it
seemed to me voices of two men in authority.
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