itary
force stationed in the island, and the captain of the sloop, held a
short consultation together, after which the officers drew back into
their places and left the Governor to speak.

"Dr Robson," he said, "Captain Ellison, in command of the sloop of war,
has told me of his previous meeting with you at the mouth of one of the
West African rivers, and the way in which your vessel was fitted out,
and of the state of your papers. Everything, in fact, goes to prove the
perfect truth of your story and the fact of your ignorance of the plan
for the escape of the prisoner. I can offer you no apology for your
being made prisoner and brought here, for I think that due consideration
will prove to you that you were somewhat imprudent in your action and
choice of friend. You and yours, sir, are perfectly at liberty to leave
the island at once. As for you, Count Des Saix," he continued, "as the
Governor of this island I have certain duties to perform, and after such
an important and daring attempt as yours, I must tell you that in spite
of peculiar circumstances which I will refer to shortly, this matter
cannot end here. It is an affair of diplomacy in which others are
concerned as well as England. For the present you and your people must
consider yourselves prisoners pending the arrival of the dispatches that
I must send to the British Government. Yours, sir, was a daring and
extremely hazardous plot, designed in extravagance and I may say in
ignorance of the impossibility of its execution. The prisoner was too
closely guarded and watched, and, as you have seen, it was quite
impossible for your vessel to approach this island without being seized.
I gather that you have been a naval officer in the service of the late
Government of France, and I presume that it was from a feeling of
devotion to the Emperor Napoleon--I should say, our prisoner here--that
you and your friends devoted yourselves to this task, which has proved
so signal a failure. Sir, I can only admire your act and the devotion
of the followers of the late Emperor."

"Sir, to us," cried the Count, "your way of speaking of our august
master is little better than an insult. With us there is no late
Emperor; he is still the ruler of the French Empire, our august master
while he lives."

"Sir," said the Governor, slowly and gravely, "mine is the painful duty
to announce to you that my words were well chosen and correct, that your
designs were as hopeless a