At that moment a tall red plume towered above the crowd of helmets; the group near Tilly parted on each side like the waves of the sea, and the stately Count of Carlstein approached with a fiery gleam in his full clear eyes--a cold and freezing expression of anger on his Grecian brow and finely formed upper lip. "Ah--my camp-master general," said Tilly, with another ironical bow; "in searching for rats at your new castle in Luneburg, we found other vermin, as you may see." The count bit his nether lip, but did not reply; and it was perhaps fortunate for him, that I (remembering Tilly's observations about treachery) had contrived, during the march, to explain to the aide-de-camp how we happened to be concealed in that apartment last night. "Señor Bandolo," said Tilly. That meritorious individual immediately appeared among us, in his large cloak and brown Dutch hat, with a cockade which was Danish on one side and Austrian on the other. Undisguised scorn was expressed by every face present, save that of the unscrupulous Count of Merodé, of whom more anon. "Bandolo," said the general, "describe what you have seen." "An officer, who wears an _eagle's wing_ in his helmet, with a sergeant and fourteen musketeers, guard the gate which closes the other end of the bridge, and is, in fact, the outer barrier of the castle." (I listened with eagerness; this officer was evidently Ian.) "A single sentinel is posted at _this_ end of the bridge." "It is narrow, you perceive, gentlemen," said Tilly. "And troops will be long in defiling across it," added the Count of Carlstein; "and will moreover be exposed to great danger, as ten heavy culverins and a bombarde from the castle can sweep its whole length." "Señor--you have seen the advanced sentinel?" "I could have pistoled him, but feared to alarm the guard," growled Bandolo. "There is no sconce at this end of the bridge, as at Boitzenburg," said Tilly; "it is fortunate! But it is of the utmost importance, in case the arches should be undermined, that we capture the guard without alarming the garrison in the castle. This can only be done by deceiving the sentinel; and if one of these prisoners will lead an armed party to the gorge of the bridge, and reply to the challenge, in his own barbarous language; on one hand I offer him a thousand pistoles, with free leave to enter any regiment in the Imperial service; and on the other, instant death, and such a burial as the wolf and raven give. Sir--officer! translate this to your fellow-prisoner," he added to me, with a terrible frown. "Dreghorn," said I, after translating the request, "what answer shall we give him?" "Tell the auld tyke, that we'll baith see him hanged first--yea, high as Haman, and that then we wadna do it!" "Count Tilly!" I exclaimed: "is this the honour--this the faith of an Imperial soldier?"