Drawing back as quietly and stealthily as possible, we passed round a small bank of osiers which grew by a little stream, and then clearly distinguished the tents to which I had been directed by the lights which were seen scattered here and there, and which came dim and enlarged through the mist. I now found the description which the man had given so accurate, that could tell perfectly where I was at every step; and numbering the tents onward from a large pavilion belonging to Martigue, the fiftieth tent on that side, brought me to the spot where the Baron de Blancford was said to be lodged. We had ridden slowly along, skirting the bank of osiers which I have mentioned upon a little eminence between it and the enemy's camp, and stationing my arquebusiers and spare lances behind with the led horses, just covered by the brow, I dismounted with the party assigned to enter the camp. Taking our sacks upon our backs, we approached the tents; and, to say the truth, the enterprise was both somewhat hazardous to the undertakers thereof if it failed, and somewhat rash, at all events. If we were taken--though we were in arms, and had every signal of the Protestant party about us--it was not at all improbable that, in those days, we should be hanged at once for spies. However, we were not persons to be much daunted by the thought of consequences, and we walked boldly forward towards the tents. As we had skirted along from the village to the spot where I had halted my men, we had seen nothing to give us any alarm. The buzz, the noise, the merriment of a camp were heard, it is true, but were heard from a distance towards the centre; and where we were there reigned all the stillness and quietness of the suburb. No sight was to be seen indicating human life, except every now and then, beheld through the canvassed street, some tall form, magnified by the mist, either accidentally crossing the light of a watch-fire, or bending down to stir it into a brighter blaze. Not a soldier who could help it put out the unsheltered head in that intense frost; and as the wine in the neighbourhood was cheap and abundant, every opportunity had been given by the generals to keep up the warmth of the body by deep potations taken in the tents and houses.