To cross this bridge was the only means from this direction of reaching the city; but the bridge was guarded at both ends by the patrol, or voluntary police; to elude their vigilance was the only desperate part of Valentine's undertaking. The river was broad, deep and strong in current; no one had ever dreamed of the feat of swimming across it. It was bordered on this side by a marsh so deep that, in the attempt to pass it, a man of moderate size and strength must have been swallowed up. The bridge was a continuation of the road and causeway, flanked by parapets extending across the river, and joining the road on the opposite side. Valentine never thought of the impossible feat of wading the marsh and swimming the river, neither did he dream of attempting to cross the bridge in the very face of the patrol guard that twice before had arrested him; but he projected a scheme almost equally wild and hopeless. This plan was to cross the river by clambering along the water side of this parapet--a plan involving less risk of discovery by the patrol, certainly--but undertaken at the most imminent peril of death, by losing hold and dropping into the river below. Valentine waded on through the cypress swamp, until the trees grew more sparsely, and the mud under the water became deeper and more treacherous as it merged into the marsh nearest the river. The poor fellow then clambered along, now on the broken causeway, his eyes all on fire with vigilance, and now dropping down into the swamp, and so in more peril and difficulty he went on, until he reached the place where the marsh merged into the river, and the road and causeway into the bridge and parapet. Here he heard the patrol guard in their little guard-house laughing and talking over their drink, for they, too, had to keep the pestilence at bay with alcohol. Here he attempted to gain the parapet, and in doing so, set in motion some alarm bell, at whose first peals he found himself suddenly surrounded, and in the hands of the patrol. "My good fellow, that feat has been tried once before, so we prepared for the second, you understand," said one of his captors. They all knew Valentine; with most of them he was a great favorite, though to others he was, for the sole reason of his natural superiority, very obnoxious. While Valentine stood overwhelmed with despair, he discerned Major Hewitt among the party; and gathering some hope from the presence of that gentleman, he clasped his hands and appealing to him, said: