the handcuffs on some citizens
came up and asked what was doing, and the sergeant said, 'It is quite
legal. We hold the mayor's warrant to impress this man for service in
the army; there is a constable here who will tell you we are acting on
authority, and if any interfere it will be worse for them.'"

Jack heard the news in silence. So, he had been pressed by a warrant of
the mayor, he was the victim of the spite of his late employer. But his
thoughts soon turned from this by the consciousness that his shirt and
clothes were soaked with blood, and putting his hand to the back of
his head he found a great lump from which the blood was still slowly
flowing. Taking off his neck handkerchief he bound it round his head
and then lay down again. He tried to think, but his brain was weak and
confused, and he presently fell into a sound sleep, from which he was
not aroused by the arrival of another batch of prisoners.

It was morning when he awoke, and he found that he had now nearly
twenty companions in captivity. Some were walking up and down like caged
animals, others were loudly bewailing their fate, some sat moody and
silent, while some bawled out threats of vengeance against those they
considered responsible for their captivity. A sentry with a shouldered
musket was standing at the foot of the steps, and from time to time some
sailors passed up and down. Jack went up to one of these.

"Mate," he said, "could you let us have a few buckets of water down
here? In the first place we are parched with thirst, and in the second
we may as well try to get off some of the blood which, from a good many
of us, has been let out pretty freely."

"Well, you seem a reasonable sort of chap," the sailor said, "and to
take things coolly. That's the way, my lad; when the king, or the queen
now--it's all the same thing--has once got his hand on you it's of no
use kicking against it. I have been pressed twice myself, so I know how
you feel. Here, mates," he said to two of the other sailors, "lend a
hand and get a bucket of fresh water and a pannikin, and half a dozen
buckets of salt water, and let these lads have a drink and a wash."

It was soon done. The prisoners were all glad of the drink, but few
cared to trouble about washing. Jack, however, took possession of a
bucket, stripped to the waist, and had a good wash. The salt water made
his wound smart, but he continued for half an hour bathing it, and at
the end of that time felt vastly