Still the hope remained that perhaps I might make a partial promise,
and ask time, and yet elude the vigilance of the authorities. As the
M.P. grew impatient, and at length imperious, showing that he well
knew that he had me in his power, I walked on to avoid the crowd
which was beginning to gather, and soon reached the recruiting
station. I saw, the moment I was inside, that the only door was
guarded by bayonets, crossed in the hands of determined men. The
Blue Jacket, in a private conversation with the recruiting officer,
soon gave him my _status_; when, turning to me, the officer said,
with the air of a man who expects to carry his point, "Well, young
man, I learn you have come to volunteer; glad to see you--good
company," &c.

To which I replied, "I was advised to call and look at the matter,
and will take some time to consider, if you please."

"No need of time, sir--no time to be lost; here is the roll--enter
your name, put on the uniform, and then you can pass out," with a
glance of his eye at the policeman and the crossed bayonets, which
meant plainly enough, "_You do not go out before._"

To my suggestion that I had a horse on the boat which I must see
about, he replied very promptly, "_That could all be done when this
business was through._"

The meshes of their cursed net were around me, and there was no
release; and with as good a grace as I could assume, I wrote my
name, and thus I _volunteered_!

Does any reader say, "You did wrong--you had better have died than