Adjutant Lawson, who, advancing towards Major Blackwater,
communicated a message, that was followed by the command
of the latter officer for the three divisions to face
inwards. The officer of artillery also gave the word to
his men to form lines of single files immediately in the
rear of their respective guns, leaving space enough for
the entrance of the approaching party, which consisted
of half a dozen files of the guard, under a non-commissioned
officer, and one whose manacled limbs, rather than his
unaccoutred uniform, attested him to be not merely a
prisoner, but a prisoner confined for some serious and
flagrant offence.

This party now advanced through the vacant quarter of
the square, and took their stations immediately in the
centre. Here the countenances of each, and particularly
that of the prisoner, who was, if we may so term it, the
centre of that centre, were thrown into strong relief by
the bright glare of the torches as they were occasionally
waved in air, to disencumber them of their dross, so that
the features of the prisoner stood revealed to those
around as plainly as if it had been noonday. Not a sound,
not a murmur, escaped from the ranks: but, though the
etiquette and strict laws of military discipline chained
all speech, the workings of the inward mind remained
unchecked; and as they recognised in the prisoner Frank
Halloway, one of the bravest and boldest in the field,
and, as all had hitherto imagined, one of the most devoted
to his duty, an irrepressible thrill of amazement and
dismay crept throughout the frames, and for a moment