This passage was dimly lighted by a tallow candle, stuck into a tin sconce nailed against the wall.
Several soldiers were lounging here, and three or four were guarding a small group of prisoners at the farther end of the place.
A sentinel stood before the second door on the left hand.
“Remain here with your attendants if you please, Colonel, while I go in and make my report to my major,” said Captain Bannister, politely addressing his captive.
Then turning to some of the lounging soldiers, he called them to come and guard these prisoners.
Four of the men approached at his bidding, and gathered around Colonel Rosenthal and his young orderlies.
Meanwhile the captain entered the second door on the left, which was guarded by a sentinel, and which was probably the office of the guerrilla chief.
Colonel Rosenthal, left with his party, looked around upon the contracted scene, noticed the dilapidated walls, the uneven floor, the ricketty doors of the hall, and the ragged, wretched, famished aspect of its guerrilla occupants.
Then he turned his eyes towards the extreme back of the place, where, in a dark corner, were the three other prisoners, with their guard about them.
Two of these prisoners were men, and they were standing up, and even in this obscure light, Colonel Rosenthal thought he could recognize something familiar in the aspect of the taller of these men.