lf. He frequently
communicated to Ferragut his opinion regarding his new comrades. With
good reason he had said that they would understand each other!... They
were serious and religious men, and he preferred them to the former
Mediterranean crews, blasphemers and incapable of resignation, who at
the slightest vexation would rip out God's name, trying to affront him
with their curses.

They were all muscular and well set-up with blue eyes and blonde
mustaches, and were wearing hidden medallions. One of them had
presented to the cook one of his religious charms which he had bought
on a pilgrimage to _Ste. Anne d'Auray_. Caragol was wearing it upon his
hairy chest, and experiencing a new-born faith in the miracles of this
foreign image.

"To her sanctuary, Captain, the pilgrims go in thousands. Every day she
performs a miracle.... There's a holy staircase there which the devout
climb on their knees and many of these lads have mounted it. I should
like ..."

On some of their voyages to Brest he was hoping that Ferragut would
permit him to go to Auray long enough to climb that same stairway on
his knees, to see _Ste. Anne_ and return aboard ship.

The vessel was no longer in a commercial harbor. It had gone to a
military harbor,--a narrow river winding through the interior of the
city, dividing it in two. A great drawbridge put in communication the
two shores bordered with vast constructions and high chimneys, naval
shops, warehouses, arsenals, and dry-docks for cleaning up the boats.
Tug-boats were continually stirring up its green and miry waters.
Steamers undergoing repairs were lined up the length of the
break-waters undergoing a continual pounding that made their plates
resound. Lighters topped with hills of pit coal were going slowly to
take their position along the flanks of the ships. Under the drawbridge
launches were coming and going from the warships, leaving on the
floating piers the crews celebrating their shore-leave with scandalous
uproar.

The _Mare Nostrum_ remained isolated while the workmen from the arsenal
were installing on the poop rapid-fire guns and the wireless telegraph
apparatus. No one could come aboard that did not belong to the crew.

The sailors' families were waiting for them on the wharf, and Caragol
had occasion to become acquainted with many Breton women,--mothers,
sisters, or fiancees of his new friends. He liked these women: they
were dressed in black with full skirts, and white,