o get on board.
More than once they made the attempt, and each time the boat was driven
off again by the sea; at last they shouted to the English seamen to come
and help them. The surviving crew of the brig had gone below, as is the
practice of seamen likely to be captured, to put on their best clothing
and to secure any valuables belonging to them. At last they appeared,
and with their assistance and the ropes they hove-to the boat, and the
Frenchmen succeeded in getting on board. Their officer was the first up
the side. Edda looked at him, and almost shrieked with terror when she
recognised Alfonse Gerardin.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

THE "IMPERIOUS" HOMEWARD BOUND--THE FIRE-SHIPS ARE PREPARED--THE FRENCH
FLEET IN BASQUE ROADS--RONALD CONDUCTS A FIRE-SHIP--GENERAL EXPLOSION OF
FIRE-SHIPS.

The "Imperious," with a fine breeze from the southward, was standing
across the Bay of Biscay. She had been actively engaged all the time
she had been in the Mediterranean, chiefly on the coasts of France and
Spain, capturing armed ships and merchantmen, destroying telegraph
stations, blowing up forts, and harassing the enemy in every possible
way.

The Marquis de Medea and his daughter, with Father Mendez, had been, at
their own request, put on board a Spanish vessel bound round to Cadiz,
as they fancied that the unsettled state of the country would make the
journey by land dangerous and disagreeable. Don Tacon had before that
been sent to Malta to take his trial as a pirate, but by some means or
other he had been completely, if not honourably, acquitted, and very
soon afterwards disappeared from the island. He was supposed by some
speedily to have taken to his old courses, and several merchantmen
reported that they had been chased by a suspicious-looking lateen-rigged
craft, on their passage between Gibraltar and Malta. He had latterly,
when the ship was at sea, been allowed a good deal of liberty on board
the frigate, and had been allowed to go about the decks at pleasure.

He was, however, again deprived of this liberty in consequence of having
been found one day climbing up over the quarter, as if he had been
prying into the captain's cabin. No one had seen him go; it was,
therefore, supposed that he must have been concealed there for some
time. When caught he at once begged to be secured.

"My life is not safe if I am left at liberty," he exclaimed, frantically
tearing his hair. "I have looked at the past.