ld wait under the battery until nightfall and so depart. And this
we did: but in the meanwhile, pretending our anxiety to avoid her, we
cross-questioned the soldiers so precisely on the Englishman's bearings
that, when darkness fell and we slipped our anchor, we ran straight down
on her without the slightest difficulty. She was the _Agile_ sloop of
twenty-four guns, and from her deck I waved good-bye to the fisherman,
scarcely more delighted by my safety than he by his napoleons, which in
my gratitude I had raised to fifteen.

"The _Agile_ landed me in Plymouth without mishap: and so end my
adventures. I ought to add, however, that, though my own conscience
held no reproach for my trick upon Marmont, I sought and obtained
permission from the War Office to select a prisoner of my own rank and
exchange him with France; and with him I sent a precise account, which
will afford some amusement to the Duke of Ragusa's enemies if he happen
to have any at headquarters. You, my cousin, will doubtless consider
this mere supererogation, but I should be glad of the reverend Doctor's
opinion."

"We will reserve this," said the Doctor, "as Question Number Five."

"And you promptly reshipped for Lisbon, followed the army to Salamanca,
and resumed your work?" said I.

"Even so: but I suspect that these adventures have rattled me. I am not
the man I was: else I had not succumbed so easily to a mere
_coup-de-soleil_. Will the reverend Doctor complete the narrative by
describing how he found me?"

"In a ditch," said the reverend Doctor placidly. "My college was
destroyed: my beloved Salamanca in ruins. 'To a philosopher,' said I,
'all the world is a home; but especially such wine-vaults as are found
in Rueda.' I saddled, therefore, my mule; loaded her with a very few
books and still fewer sticks of furniture; more frugal even than
Juvenal's friend Umbricius, _cui tota domus redo, componitur una_.
On my road, and almost under the shadow of this rock, my mule shied in
the most ladylike fashion at sight of a redcoat prostrate in the dust.
The rest you can guess: but assuredly I did not guess at the time that I
had happened on one whose story will--if ever God restores me to my
University--so illustrate my lectures as to make them appear that which
they will not be--an entirely new set of compositions."

"Well," said I, "the hour is late: and however cheerfully you men of
conscience and of casuistry may look forward to spending