When we crossed the threshold we realized the good intention
behind this advice, seeing that the room we entered, which had been a
shop of sorts, was now an improvised powder magazine.
From the floor to the height of a man it was piled with explosive shells
for field guns, cased in straw covers like wine bottles, and stacked in
neat rows, with their noses all pointing one way. Our guide led us
along an aisle of these deadly things, beckoned us through another
doorway at the side, where a sentry stood with a bayonet fixed on his
gun, and with a wave of his hand invited us to partake of the
hospitalities of the place. We looked about us, and lo! we were hard-
and-fast in jail!
I have been in pleasanter indoor retreats in my time, even on rainy
afternoons. The room was bedded down ankle-deep in straw; and the
straw, which had probably been fresh the day before, already gave off a
strong musky odor--the smell of an animal cage in a zoo.
For furnishings, the place contained a bench and a large iron pot
containing a meat stew, which had now gone cold, so that a rime of gray
suet coated the upper half of the pot.
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