They looked longingly at it, as they desired very much to see Bernardo Galvez at once.

But presently they passed on into the Place d'Armes, a wide open space used as a review ground.

At the very moment they entered it a company of Spanish soldiers were going through their evolutions, and, after the fashion of to-day, children and their dark-faced nurses were watching them.

The five did not think much of the soldiers, who seemed to them to be dwarfed and without zeal.
"Ef ever Kentucky comes down the long river," said Shif'less Sol, "it will take bigger men than these to hold her back." Paul's gaze wandered from the soldiers, and he saw in a corner of the Place d'Armes a great wooden gallows that made him shudder.

It was a gallows very often used, too, and any one could have pointed out to Paul the spot in the middle of the Place d'Armes where five gallant French gentlemen, among the best citizens of New Orleans, had been shot not long before for planning to throw off the rule of Spain and make Louisiana a free republic.
They strolled on, still filled with curiosity and gratifying it.