ake our
meals, and at other times we can use the beds as sofas. A
good-sized piece of carpet, a table, and what looks like a pudding
dish to wash in.

"Things might have been better, and they might have been a great
deal worse. As to our food, we must reserve comment until they
bring us some.

"Now, as to funds, I had only twenty-five crowns on me when I was
captured. You were rather better off, as you had ten pounds in gold
and eight crowns in silver. You see, had we given our parole like
the others, and gone in for luxurious feeding outside, our stock
would soon have given out; and money is an essential for carrying
out an escape, when that escape involves perhaps weeks of
travelling, and certainly disguises of different kinds. We have not
a penny too much for that, and must resolve to eschew all luxuries
except tobacco, and perhaps a bottle of wine on Sundays."

"Our windows, as you observe, are very strongly barred. They look
westward, but that range of buildings opposite prevents our getting
a view of the sea. One thing is evident, at once: that it is no
manner of use for us to think of cutting through those bars, or
dislodging them; for we should only, on lowering ourselves, be in
the courtyard, and no nearer escape than we were before we began
the job. It is a good thing to get at least one point off our mind.

"Now, Dick, before we go further, let us make an agreement that we
will always talk in French. I know enough of it to be able to
assist you, and it will be an amusement, as well as a help, to
accustom ourselves to talk in it."

"All right," Ryan said, resignedly; "but I bargain that, for an
hour a day, we drop it altogether. It will be an awful nuisance;
and one must give one's tongue a rest, occasionally, by letting it
straighten itself out a bit."

The door now opened, and one of the warders entered with two large
bowls of broth, a fair-sized piece of the meat from which it was
made, a dish of vegetables, a large piece of bread, and a bottle of
wine.

"This is your supper, messieurs. In the morning you have coffee and
a piece of bread; at twelve o'clock a meal like this, with a bottle
of wine between you."

"Thank you," Terence said cheerfully, "that will do extremely well.
Are there any other British officers here?"

"None, except your comrades. There were some naval officers here
last week, but they have been sent into the interior. We do not
have many prisoners here. Those captured at se