and distant detonations completed the
resemblance detected by my friend.

If anything were needed to perfect the
illusion, it was supplied by a sudden slamming of
windows and doors; a darting about of men,
women, and children; and the abrupt
disappearance, down an archway, of an elderly lady,
who had been quietly knitting at a lemonade-
stall across the way.

"Giuseppe, O! What is this?" shouted he
to our driver, who sauntered into sight,
preserving his usual impassive demeanour.

Giuseppe made an effort, and pointed to the
adjacent heights, dotted with little puffs of
smoke:

"Austrians."

My friend dived into an open doorway, and
was, I trust, received with hospitality by the
family. The enemy had suddenly shown
themselves on the edge of the overhanging rocks,
and, extending in a line nearly two miles
long, opened a sharp rifle-fire upon the
village. Six balls had struck Garibaldi's
house, when the general, who had been
out on one of his early excursions, was seen
approaching in his carriage, and at once
attracted the fire. He was propped up with
pillows, still suffering from the wound—
erroneously termed slight—received at Monte
Suello. Bidding his staff and escort ride fifty
paces apart, the general drove safely into
shelter; not, however (as Colonel Chambers,
who rode beside him, informed me), without
three balls reaching his carriage.

The neglect of an officer who had been
directed by Garibaldi to occupy the heights, led
to this incident, which, fortunately, had no ill
result. Two companies of the red-shirted
beginning to ascend the winding paths, the
enemy withdrew.

During the day, our party of amateurs was
increased by the arrival of a gentleman who had
undertaken to inform the readers of a West-end
paper what Garibaldi was doing; and of another,
whose somewhat difficult name—Popplieffewowski
—we (he being a very good fellow) at once
agreed to soften into the "Popular One."

We dined on two fowls, alive and careless
but an hour before, and, in a commodious
hayloft, not innocent of flea and rat, resigned
ourselves to the coy repose that might be expected
in such a lodging.

I was falling asleep for the fifteenth time,
when a tall figure stood at my side, a sabre
clanked, and a voice muttered:

"Be up at three. Something——"

"All right. But where?"

"I'll call for you." And the phantom
vanished, bequeathing us the flavour of a very
strong cigar.

We were up at three, but the ghost did not
call for us. We waited till five. No spectre.
At length we heard that Major W. had taken his
sword and revolver, and had gone out hastily at
one in the morning. Furthermore, that there
was something desperate going forward—
somewhere.

"Rather selfish, I think," muttered the Popular
One. "Something and somewhere! At all
events, the fort cannot walk away. Let's go to
Ampola."

Agreed. A weary march—or rather climb,
for we had frequently to ascend by a flight of
steps cut in the rock—placed us, in about an
hour and a half , upon a green plateau, with
shrubs here and there of sufficient growth to
shield us from the burning sun. Here, we found
four nine-pound brass guns, assisted by three
others, planted on neighbouring crests, "playing
upon the contumacious little fort below.

The latter, having much the aspect of a little
roadside inn, with the stabling detached, was
situated at the bottom of the ravine, in an
abrupt angle of the road: forming an excellent
target for the round shot and grenades that,
every half minute, whistled down the narrow
gorge, and struck with unerring exactitude
either the fort proper or the fortified barrack in
the rear. But no effect was perceptible. As
the cloud of smoke and brown dust blew away,
the banner of Austria constantly reappeared,
defiant as ever. Thrice, indeed, it had been
shot away; but it had been as often replaced by
the sturdy garrison.

The amusement of watching it soon became
monotonous. The fort replied only at long
intervals, and an argument in which there is but
one disputant is apt to wax wearisome. Below
the hill, however, a different scene was enacting.
Hoping to reason with the fort with
greater effect, a gallant artillery officer had
caused a gun to be quietly projected round a
jutting angle of the road, within a few hundred
paces of the wall, and was about to deliver fire,
when a shot from the fortress struck the
carriage, dismounted the gun, killed the officer and
a corporal, and wounded no less than sixteen
men. Loud shouts of "Savoia! Savoia!"
"Avanti!" and bugles sounding the advance,
covered the mishap; and we, who were unable,
from our position, to see precisely what had
occurred, imagined that a sudden dash was to
be made upon the fort. Next moment,
however, the recal was sounded, and all went on as
before.

During the firing yesterday, two deserters
made their way into the town. They were
Venetians, and gave some useful information.

The few prisoners hitherto taken by the volunteers
have been treated with much kindness.

"Remember," said Garibaldi, at the
commencement of the war, "every Austrian
prisoner is my son."*

* In striking contrast, the Conductor of this
Journal has received, on very high Italian authority,
written assurances that when, at Lissa, Italians,
officers and men, were struggling in the water, the
Austrians fired on them—officers with revolvers,
and men with rifles; That this took place after the
Re d'ltalia was sunk, and the Palestro blown up;
That nine officers from the Re d'ltalia, who were on
a kind of raft, were thus shot; And that these
chivalrous achievements were accompanied with
coarse and insulting cries.