I replied that we should SEE PRESENTLY. Breakfast then making its appearance, we sat down, and while we were eating, (our men all on parade at the door) Johnson's men kept dropping in one after another, till there were, I dare say, as many as thirty of them in the room, ALL ARMED. When breakfast was over, I turned to the constable, and desired him to look to his charge, meaning the three vagrants, for that we would start as soon as our men were all refreshed. Upon this captain Johnson said he believed he should not let the prisoners go. "Not let them go, sir," said I, "what do you mean by that, sir?" "I mean, sir," replied he, "that the law is an oppressive one." I asked him, still keeping myself perfectly cool, if he was not an American soldier? "Yes, sir," he answered, "I am an American soldier; and as good a one, perhaps, as yourself, or any other man." "Well, sir, and is this the way you show your soldiership, by insulting the law?" "I am not bound," continued he, "to obey a bad law." "But, sir, who gave YOU a right to JUDGE the law?" "I don't mind that," quoth he, "but d--n me, sir, if I'll let the prisoners go." "Very well, captain Johnson," said I, "we shall soon try THAT; and if you and your people here, choose to go to the devil for resisting the law, on your own heads be the bloody consequences." With this I gave the floor a thundering stamp, and in a moment, as by magic, in bursted my brave sergeant and men, with fixed bayonets, ready for slaughter, while Jossilin and myself, whipping out our swords, rushed on as to the charge. A troop of red foxes dashing into a poultry yard, never produced such squalling and flying as now took place among these poor guilty wretches -- "Lord have mercy upon us," they cried -- down fell their guns -- smack went the doors and windows -- and out of both, heels over head they tumbled, as expecting every moment the points of our bayonets. The house was quickly cleared of every soul except Johnson and his lieutenant, one Lunda, who both trembled like aspen leaves, expecting a severe drubbing. "Captain Johnson," said I, "don't tremble; you have nothing to fear from me. A man who can act as you have done, is not an object of anger, but CONTEMPT. Go! and learn the spirit that becomes a gentleman and an American soldier." I should have observed, that as we advanced to charge Johnson's poltroons, one of the party, a resolute fellow, presented his gun to my breast and drew the trigger. Happily, in the very instant of its firing, lieutenant Jossilin knocked it up with his sword; and the ball grazing my shoulder, bursted through the side of the house.