nd it almost broke his heart. But what
was he to do? There are so many men out of work that if he had
not sailed in the lugger there would have been scores to take his
place, and he might not perhaps have been taken on again."

"He has been to England, has he not?" Jeanne asked.

"Yes; the lugger carries silks and brandy. It is a dangerous trade,
for the Channel is swarming with English cruisers. But what is he
to do? One must live."

"Is your husband in favour of the new state of things?" Jeanne
asked.

"Not in his heart, mademoiselle, any more than I am, but he holds
his tongue. Most of the sailors in the port hate these murdering
tyrants of ours; but what can we do?"

"Well, Marthe, I am sure I can trust you, and your husband can help
me if he will."

"Surely you can trust me," the woman said. "I would lay down my
life for you, and I know Adolphe would do so too when he knows what
you have done for us."

"Well, then, Marthe, I and my sister and my brother Henri are anxious
to be taken to England. We are ready to pay well for a passage,
but we have not known how to set about it."

"I thought it might be that," Marthe said quietly; "for anyone who
knows the ways of gentlefolk, as I do, could see with half an eye
that you are not one of us. But they say, mademoiselle, that your
brother is a friend of Robespierre, and that he is one of the
committee here."

"He is only pretending, Marthe, in order that no suspicion should
fall upon us. But he finds that the sailors distrust him, and he
cannot get to speak to them about taking a passage, so I thought
I would speak to you, and you can tell me when a boat is sailing
and who is her captain."

"Adolphe will manage all that for you, never fear," the woman
said. "I know that many a poor soul has been hidden away on board
the smuggler's craft and got safely out of the country; but of
course it's a risk, for it is death to assist any of the suspects.
Still the sailors are ready to run the risk, and indeed they haven't
much fear of the consequences if they are caught, for the sailor
population here are very strong, and they would not stand quietly
by and see some of their own class treated as if they had done
some great crime merely because they were earning a few pounds by
running passengers across to England. Why they have done it from
father to son as far as they can recollect, for there has never
been a time yet when there were not people who wanted to pass fro