Before I slept everything had been prepared for the journey. I studied the map carefully and left it with the Doctor. The gray clothing was wrapped in a gum-blanket, to be strapped to the saddle. My escort was expected to provide for everything else. I decided to wear a black soft hat of the Doctor's, whose head was as big as mine, although he weighed about half as much as I did. My own shoes were coarse enough, and of no peculiar make. In my pockets I put nothing except a knife, some Confederate money, some silver coin, and a ten-dollar note of the bank of Hamburg, South Carolina--a note which Dr. Khayme possessed and which he insisted on my taking. There would be nothing on me to show that I was a Union soldier, except my uniform. I would go unarmed. Before daylight I was aroused. My man was waiting for me outside the tent. I intended to slip out without disturbing the Doctor, but he was already awake. He pressed my hand, but said not a word. The man and I mounted and took the road, he leading. "Do you know the way to Old Church?" I asked. "Yes, sir," said he. "What is your name?" "Jones, sir; don't you know me?" "What? My friend of the black horse?" "Yes, sir." "But I believe you are in blue this time." "Yes; I got no orders." I was glad to have Jones; he was a self-reliant man, I had already had occasion to know. We marched rapidly, Jones always in the lead. The air was fine. The morning star shone tranquil on our right. Vega glittered overhead, and Capella in the far northeast, while at our front the handle of the Dipper cut the horizon. The atmosphere was so pure that I looked for the Pleiades, to count them; they had not risen. We passed at first along a road on either side of which troops lay in bivouac, with here and there the tent of some field officer; then parks of artillery showed in the fields; then long lines of wagons, with horses and mules picketed behind. Occasionally we met a horseman, but nothing was said to him or by him. Now the encampment was behind us, and we rode along a lane where nothing was seen except fields and woods. "Jones," said I; "are you furnished with credentials?" "Yes, sir," he replied; "if our pickets or patrols stop us, I can satisfy them." At daylight we were halted. Jones rode forward alone, then returned and explained that our post would admit us. We passed a mounted vedette, and then went on for a few hundred yards until we came to a crossroad. "We are at Old Church," said Jones. "And we have nobody here?" I asked. "Yes, sir; our men are over there, but I suppose we are to take the left here; we have another picket-post half a mile up the road." "Then we will stop with them and breakfast," said I. We took to the left--toward the west. At the picket-post the road forked; a blacksmith's shop was at the north of the road. The sun had nearly risen.