ck was felt; and I knew that the
Nautilus had stopped at the bottom of the ocean. My uneasiness
increased. The Canadian's signal did not come. I felt inclined to
join Ned Land and beg of him to put off his attempt. I felt that we
were not sailing under our usual conditions.

At this moment the door of the large saloon opened, and Captain Nemo
appeared. He saw me, and without further preamble began in an amiable
tone of voice:

"Ah, sir! I have been looking for you. Do you know the history of
Spain?"

Now, one might know the history of one's own country by heart; but in
the condition I was at the time, with troubled mind and head quite
lost, I could not have said a word of it.

"Well," continued Captain Nemo, "you heard my question! Do you know
the history of Spain?"

"Very slightly," I answered.

"Well, here are learned men having to learn," said the Captain. "Come,
sit down, and I will tell you a curious episode in this history. Sir,
listen well," said he; "this history will interest you on one side, for
it will answer a question which doubtless you have not been able to
solve."

"I listen, Captain," said I, not knowing what my interlocutor was
driving at, and asking myself if this incident was bearing on our
projected flight.

"Sir, if you have no objection, we will go back to 1702. You cannot be
ignorant that your king, Louis XIV, thinking that the gesture of a
potentate was sufficient to bring the Pyrenees under his yoke, had
imposed the Duke of Anjou, his grandson, on the Spaniards. This prince
reigned more or less badly under the name of Philip V, and had a strong
party against him abroad. Indeed, the preceding year, the royal houses
of Holland, Austria, and England had concluded a treaty of alliance at
the Hague, with the intention of plucking the crown of Spain from the
head of Philip V, and placing it on that of an archduke to whom they
prematurely gave the title of Charles III.

"Spain must resist this coalition; but she was almost entirely
unprovided with either soldiers or sailors. However, money would not
fail them, provided that their galleons, laden with gold and silver
from America, once entered their ports. And about the end of 1702 they
expected a rich convoy which France was escorting with a fleet of
twenty-three vessels, commanded by Admiral Chateau-Renaud, for the
ships of the coalition were already beating the Atlantic. This convoy
was to go to Cadiz, but the Admiral, h