"If two of your men let down their muskets, I can catch hold of them," said the man in a whisper. The hint was acted on. Don Casimir beckoned up two of his men, who laid themselves flat on the wall, lowering their muskets until the man below was able to grasp a barrel in each hand. Then they gradually drew up the weapons hand over hand, and the man with them. Don Casimir, with drawn sword, kept a sharp look-out to assure himself that the new-comers were alone, and that this strange incident was not part of a French plot to rush the wall. In half a minute the spokesman was standing beside the little group. "Do I see Don Casimir?" he said, looking keenly at the Spaniard, who had given a start of recognition as his features came into view above the parapet. "Yes, Señor," replied Don Casimir with a bow. "This is a strange meeting." "Strange indeed! Ah, what an hour it has been! I thought we should never have got through. Turn where we would, the French seemed to have sentries everywhere." "Except yonder, Don Miguel," said Jack quietly, coming a little more distinctly into view. Miguel made a quick turn at the sound of his voice, and with a scarcely perceptible pause said: "Ah! my dear young friend, who would have thought of seeing you here? What a pleasant meeting! Yes, as you say, except yonder. But, as it happens, the sentry yonder is now keeping guard in another world." He tapped the hilt of his sword significantly. "We were not in the mood to brook delay, and he was—well, one Frenchman the less." "All the same, they have replaced him pretty soon," remarked Jack dryly, "unless that is his ghost." He pointed, as he spoke, to the form of a sentry leaning on his musket at the spot that had been described to him by Don Casimir as the customary post. "It is strange," replied Miguel musingly; "one might have expected a commotion—when they found the body. But, yes—no doubt they hush these things up. It would reflect on their discipline." Don Casimir, who had been looking from one to the other in some astonishment, here interposed. "But—do I understand, Don Miguel, that you have come through the French lines?" "Why, certainly, my friend; how else should I be here? We are from Seville, from the Supreme Junta, with despatches. We have ridden post-haste four hundred and fifty miles in six days, as my friend here must know, and by a miracle have succeeded in eluding the wolves yonder. But that reminds me—I should lose no time in delivering my despatches to the captain-general. I suppose he is still in the Aljafferia? How goes it in Saragossa? I fear you have been hard pressed." "Yes, indeed," replied Don Casimir. "But the pack of wolves outside is being thinned. Every yard costs a man." "Ah! I shall have much to hear," said Miguel, with a meaning look at Jack; "and on my side I have not a little to tell. Adios, Señores!"