ings belonging to the High Court of
Admiralty always excepted)"--all this for an annual rent of Forty
Pounds.

The Duke, in short, was by his lease made Lord Proprietor, with all
civil jurisdiction. But, being far too great a man to reside in the
Islands, or even to visit them, he entrusted his business to a resident
Agent, and deputed his magistracy to an elective Council of Twelve,
over which the Commandant for the time being invariably presided. But
this custom (it should be explained) rested on courtesy and not upon
right. Based upon compromise--for the boundaries between the civil and
military jurisdictions were at some points not precisely determined--it
had been found to work smoothly enough in practice, it had stood the
test of a hundred and fifty years when, in the year after Sevastopol,
Major Narcisse Vigoureux arrived in the Islands to take over the
military command, and the Duke nominated him for the Presidency quite
as a matter of course.

As President, he had power, with the assent of the Court, to inflict
fines, whippings, and imprisonment--this last with the limitation that
he could not commit to any prison on the mainland, but only to the
Island lock-up; and also, if he chose, to prescribe the ducking-stool
for refractory or scolding women. The office carried no salary; but as
Governor under the Lord Proprietor he enjoyed a valuable perquisite in
the harbour dues collected from the shipping. Every vessel visiting the
port or hoisting the Queen's colours was liable, on coming to anchor or
grounding, to pay the sum of two shillings and two pence. All
foreigners paid double. And since, in addition to ships putting in from
abroad, it sometimes happened that two hundred sail of coasters would
be driven by easterly gales to shelter in St. Lide's Harbour, or
roadstead, or in Cromwell's Sound, you may guess that this made a very
pleasant addition to the Commandant's military pay.

In short, for a dozen years Major Narcisse Vigoureux had been, for an
unmarried man, an exceedingly happy one. If you ask me how an officer
bearing such a name happened in command of a British garrison, I answer
that he was not a Frenchman, but a Channel Islander of good Jersey
descent; and this again helped him to understand the folk over whom he
ruled. The wrong-doers feared him; but they were few. By the rest of
the population, including his soldiers, he was beloved, respected, not
a little envied. For a bachelor he mingled with