it if it
holds.

"I hear there is no news of Captain Martin, monsieur?"

"No, I am sorry to say there is not; but I have every hope that we
shall find he has got to Poole before us."

"We are all hoping that nothing has happened to him. Of course, we
heard that he was fighting in La Vendee and, as every one of us
comes from one port or another there, we only wished that we had
been with him."

"You were well out of it, Edouard. It was a terrible business. No
one could have fought better than your people did, but they had all
France against them; and few, indeed, of those who were engaged
from the first can ever have returned to their homes. And even when
they get there there can be no safety for them, for Carrier and his
commissioners seem to be determined to annihilate the Vendeans
altogether."

The mate indulged in many strong expressions as to the future fate
of Carrier and his underlings.

"We heard of that attack on the jail, Master Leigh. I guessed that
you were in that, for among the prisoners who were delivered the
names of Monsieur Martin and Madame Jean Martin were mentioned."

"Yes, Captain Martin and I were in the thick of it. There was very
little fighting to do, for we chose a time when the troops were all
busy with Cathelineau's and Stofflet's attack; and we had really
only to open the door of the prison, to get them out."

"The captain has been telling us that Monsieur Flambard was also in
danger of arrest. It is atrocious. Everyone knows that he is a good
master, and I never heard a word said against him."

"That has very little to do with it," Leigh said. "His crime was
that he was rich, and the scoundrels wanted his money. They did
arrest him, but he was rescued before they got him out of his
house, and fortunately everything had been prepared for his flight.
At the present moment they are searching high and low for him, and
I expect that no craft there will be permitted to leave till she
has been thoroughly ransacked, to make sure that he and madame are
not hiding there."

"Ah, they are bad times, monsieur. It may be that things were not
quite as they might have been, though for my part I never saw
anything to grumble at; nor did any other Vendean, as far as I ever
heard; but if things had been ten times as bad as they were, they
would have been better than what is going on now.

"Why, monsieur, all Europe must think that we Frenchmen are devils.
They say that more than a hundred thou