{"character_count": 5644, "word_count": 1025, "ccnet_language_score": [0.993399977684021], "ccnet_perplexity": [1937.5], "fasttext_language": ["en"]}
a young man who followed him, and who. although in much more showv uniform, was evidently his inferior in rank. We bowed as he passed before us, and he acknowledged the salutatonby raising his cooked hat slightly but courteously from his head. He was pass ] ing on, when his eyes suddenly fell upon Captain Ready, who was standing little on one side, notching away at his tenth or

 twelfth stick, and at that moment happened

 10 look up. The officer started, gazed car

 ncstly al Ready for the space of moment,

 and then with delight expressed in his coun-

 lenance, sprang forward, and clasped him ill

 his arms.

 '.Captain Ready :n

 "That is my name," quietly replied the

 captain.

 ..Is il possible you do not know me D exclaimed the officer.

 Ready looked hard at him, and seemed a

 little in doubt. Al last he shook his head.

 You do not know c;' repeated the other, almost responsibility, and then whis- pered something ill his ear.

 1t was now Ready's urn to start and look surprised. A smile of pleasure lit up his countenance as he graspcd the hand of the office, who took his arm and dragged him away into the house.

 A quarter of all hour elapsed, during which we lost ourselves i'll conjectures as to who this acquaintance ol Ready's could be. At the end of that time the captain and his new tor old) friend re-appcared. The latter walked away and we saw him enter the government house, while Ready joined us, as silent and phlegmatic as .cr, and resumed lis stick and penknile. In reply to our inquiries as to who the officer was, he only said that he belonged to the army besieging Callao, and that he had once mnie a voyage as his pas senger. This was all the information we could extract from our tac;itufn friend but we saw plainly that the officer was somebody of importance, from the respect paid him by the soldiers and others whom he met.

 The morning following this incident, we were sitting over our chocolate, when an or dinary dragoon came to ask for Captain Ready. The captain went out to speak to him, and presently returning, went on with his breakfast very deliberately

 When he had done, he asked me if were inclined for little excursion out of the town, which would, perhaps, keep Us d couple ol days away lwillingly accepted, heartily sick as was oi the motonous life we were leading. We packed up our valises, took our pistols and cutlasses, and went out.

 To my astonishment the orderly was waiting at the door with two magnificent Spanish chargers, splendidly accoutred. They were the finest horses had seen in Peru. and my curiosity was strongly excited 10 know who had sent them, and whither we were going. To my questions, Ready re- piled that we were going to visit the officer whom he had spoken to on the preceding day, and who was with the besiegng army, and had once been his passenger, but he de- elared he did not know his name or rank.

 We had left the town about q mile behind Us, when We heard the sound of cannon Ill 2 the direction we were approaching; it n- creased as we went on, and about mile fur ther we met a string of carts, full of wounded, going into Lima. Here and there we caught sight of parties ol marauders, who disappeared as soon as they saw our orderly. l felt great longing and curiosity to witness the fight that was evidently going on--not, however, that l was particularly desirous of taking share ln Ii, or putting myself in the way oi the bullets. My friend the captain logged E on by my side, taking little heed of the roar of tile cannon, which to him was no novelty for having passed his life at sea, he had had ! more than one encounter with pirates and other rough customers, and been many times under the fire of batteries, running in and out of blockaded American ports. His whole attention was now expressed by the man agement of his horse, which was somewhat restlve, and he, like most sailors, was a very indifferent rider.

 On reaching the top of small rising ground, we beheld to the left the dark frown- ing hastions of the fort, and to the right the village ol Bella Vista, which, although com manded by the guns of Callao, had been cho- sen as the headquarters of the besieging ar my-the houses being, for the most part, built ot huge blocks of stone. and offering sufficient resistance to the halls The or derly pointed out to us the various batteries. and especially one which was just completed. and was situated about three hundred yards from the fortress. IL had not vet been used. and was still masked from the enemy by some houses which stood just in its front.

 While we were looking about us, Ready's horse, lrrltatcd by the noise of the firing. the flashes of the guns, and perhaps more than any thing by the captains bad riding, became more and more unmanageabie. and at last taking the bit between his teeth, started off at mad gallon, closely followed by myself and the orderly, to whose horses the panic seemed to have communicated itself. The clouds of dust raised by the animals feet, prevented us from seeing whther we were going. Suddenly there was an explosion that seemed to shake the very earth under LIS, and Ready, the orderly, and myself, lay sprawling with our horses on the ground Before we could collect our senses and oet up, we were nearly deaicned bya tremendous roar oi artillery close 10 us, and at the same moment shower of stones and fragments oi brick and mortar clattered about our cars.

 The orderly was stunned by his fall; 1 was bruised and bewildered Ready was the only one who seemed in no ways put out, and with his usual phlegm, extricating him. sell from his horse he came to our assistoncp