ssels, were herded in a space not large enough for the
comfortable habitation of half that number. In my heart I fully
sympathized with Vetch's objection to being classed among the
seamen, for they were in the main a sorry lot, filthy in their
habits and base minded. Some, like old Dilly, were of a higher
type, and these consorted together as much as possible.

The conditions at St. Malo were so had that I was not sorry when,
after some few weeks there, a great number of us were marched out
under an armed guard to a castle about fifteen miles to the
southeast. A very woebegone battalion we must have looked as we
tramped to our new quarters--many of us suffering from prison
fever, all more or less in rags, and half starved. The change was
due to no compassion on the part of the authorities, but to an
alarm in the town. A sloop had come in, it appeared, with news that
an attack was intended against the port by no other than Benbow,
and it was feared that the prisoners might seize this opportunity
for a mutiny. I did not learn this until after we had reached our
new prison; it came out through one of our jailers, a talkative
fellow who liked to air his little English, otherwise I should not
have felt so much pleased at the change of quarters; though even if
Benbow had assaulted the town and we prisoners had risen, it was
improbable that we could have found a means of escaping to him.

The new prison was, as I have said, a castle, or to speak more
precisely, the ruins of one. It had once been a place of
considerable dimensions and of great strength; but it was now far
gone towards demolition. The outer walls still stood, completely
encircled by a moat, the only entrance being by way of the
drawbridge which, to judge by its moss-grown edges, had not been
raised for many a day. Marching over it, and through an archway, we
found ourselves in the courtyard, a large area roughly square in
shape, and open to the sky.

At the farther end, built against the wall in the intervals between
three round towers, a kind of wooden barracks had been erected for
our accommodation, the only habitable portion of the castle being
the keep, flanking the entrance, and this was devoted to our
guardians. Our barracks was in two stories, the lower being
intended for use by day, the upper, which was reached by a ladder,
containing our sleeping apartments. The rooms on the ground were
lit by windows opening into the courtyard; the sleeping rooms o