much he was obliged to them for their assistance, both
parties were satisfied; and now a consultation was held between them how
to proceed, while the privateer's men, who kept back the crowd, amused
them by giving a detail of the two desperate actions which had been
fought--no two accounts agreeing, certainly, but that was of no
consequence.

The first question to be canvassed was, what was to be done with the
prisoners? Morlaix was the nearest town in which they would be under
safe keeping, but that was twenty miles distant, and it would be
necessary to send over an express, so that a sufficient force might be
dispatched to Lanion to escort the prisoners there. This Mr. Mayor
undertook to do immediately; a boy was summoned to take over the
communication, and the mayor went up to write his letter to the
authorities, while the wounded men were carried away, and by the
direction of the cure, who had just arrived and joined the consultation,
billeted upon different houses in the town. The express having been
dispatched, and the wounded safely housed and under the care of the
village AEsculapius, who never had such a job in his whole life, the next
point of consultation was how to dispose of the prisoners until the
force should arrive from Morlaix. Here the sergeant became the principal
person, being military commandant; forty-seven prisoners were a heavy
charge for twelve invalids; and as for the privateer's men, there was no
dependence upon them, for, as the captain said, they had had enough to
do to take them, and it was the business of the authorities to look
after them now, while the privateer's men made merry.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

With those powerful agents, Fire and Water, we contrive to Escape
from a French Prison.

After more than an hour of confusion and loud talking it was at last
proposed and agreed to, _nem. con._, that the prisoners should be
confined in the old church; the twelve invalids to be divided into two
parties, who were to be sentinels over them, relieving each other every
four hours. The mayor immediately went forward with the village
blacksmith to examine the state of the church doors, and ascertain how
they might be secured; while the prisoners, having been summoned out of
the privateer, were escorted up between two files of the privateer's men
with their swords drawn, and followed by the whole population. As soon
as we arrived at the church door the name of every prisoner w