Daylight had passed into night when Corporal Diggs recovered consciousness; lying in his thorny bed bleeding, sore at every joint, and with face and hands frightfully lacerated, it was needless to say that this brave soldier was very uncomfortable. His first thought, on regaining his senses, was to extricate himself from the thorns, and this was by no means an easy task. Thorns above, thorns below, thorns on all sides, made moving without additional laceration an impossibility. With great care and many a smothered imprecation, groan and prayer, he at last emerged on the meadow side of the hedge. The sky was clear and dark, and studded with innumerable stars. Each silent watcher seemed twinkling with merriment as the tattered Confederate stood by the hedge, pondering which way to go. On the opposite side lay the broad, dark lane, leading he knew not where, and before him stretched the wide meadow. He chose the latter, and was in the act of starting on his journey, when the tramp of hoofs coming down the lane struck his ear, and he again crouched down under the shelter. It proved to be a small body of Union cavalry, and their arms clanked ominously as they rode by. They passed on over the hill, and the corporal rose once more and scanned the broad, dark green meadow, whose waving grass was soaked with a heavy dew. But wet grass was nothing compared with Union cavalry just then, and he pushed boldly across the meadow, regardless of its dampness. The meadow was much wider than he had supposed; he traveled for a mile or more through the tall, damp grass before he came to a stone fence, on the opposite side of which he saw a thick wood. After carefully reconnoitering the premises, Corporal Diggs scaled the stone fence and dropped down on the other side. He paused a few minutes to remove the thorns from his arms and legs, wrung some of the water out of his clothes, and then selecting one of many narrow paths, he walked down into the forest. He traveled for several hours, avoiding public roads, and at last came out in the rear of what seemed to be an extensive plantation. He found some stacks of new made hay, which offered quite a comfortable sleeping place, and in a few minutes, after he had crawled into one, he was asleep, and slept soundly until the sun was up. Then, stiff and sore and bruised, he crawled from his bed and looked about him. The place has a familiar look. There was a magnificent stone mansion to his left, and those broad fields and numerous plantation houses he had seen before. _It was the plantation of Mrs. Julia Juniper._