ow I pray so."
Then again, at the admiral's desire that he should not fret too much,
but hope ever for the best, he went on with the account of all that
had befallen him.

"When my wound was nearly healed," he said, "there came to the room in
the inn, where I was closely guarded, a small body of exempts who
carried me to Paris to the prison of La Tournelle, a place from which,
as I shortly afterward learned, a chain of condemned galley slaves was
to set out, all winter as it was, for Marseilles."

"'But,' I cried to the man who fed us morning and night like animals,
while we lay each with an iron collar round our necks by which we
were chained to a beam that traversed the dungeon----"

"In a Christian country!" exclaimed the admiral--"a Christian
country!"

"Ay! in a Christian country! Yet I cried, I say, to the man who
guarded us: 'But these companions of mine _are_ condemned--I am not. I
have undergone no trial!'

"'_Bah!_' he replied, 'your trial is made and done. _Bon Dieu!_ the
courts cannot wait until criminals feel themselves in sufficient good
health to assist at the _seances_. Your trial is over,' and the wretch
made a joke therewith. 'Your _trials_ have now to commence. Keep a
good heart!' 'Show me my sentence, then,' I exclaimed, 'produce it.'
'_A la bonne heure_,' he replied. 'To-morrow I will obtain it from the
governor. You shall see.' And the next day he showed it to me. It was
not so long but that I remember every word of it now. It ran: 'To
Georges St. Georges. For that you, a cashiered officer of his
Majesty's forces, have drawn sword upon and threatened assassination
to his Majesty's chief of the army, Monsieur de Louvois, in his
Majesty's own palace of the Louvre; for that, also, you attempted the
assassination of his Majesty's subject, le Marquis de Roquemaure,
appointed captain of his Majesty's Regiment of Picardy, and of a lady
of his Majesty's court, you are condemned to the galleys in
perpetuity. Signed, Le Marquis de Vrilliere.'"

Again the admiral exclaimed, "In a Christian country!" and again St.
Georges continued:

"A week afterward we were on the road, chained together two and two by
the neck, while all along the line through our chains ran another,
joining the first couple to the last. The snow lay on the ground
until we reached Avignon, six weeks later; at night we slept in
barns, in stables, sometimes in the open air. Some--the old and
sickly--fell down and were left by the roa