ishes, was as eager as we were to
escape, being anxious, as he said, to get away from the swearing,
drinking, gambling crew. "I won't say there's not a godly man among
them, because there are two or three who have been pressed into the
service, and are ready to get away if they can, but the rest, the Lord
deliver us from them," he said, while we were standing on the forecastle
one evening, out of hearing of the rest of the ship's company.

Lancelot, who was full of devices, proposed that we should take a boat
and pull away out to sea, hoping that we might get across to the Welsh
coast and be picked up by a Parliamentary cruiser, some of which were
said to be in the Irish Channel.

This plan seemed most feasible, though in reality full of danger. It
would be no easy matter, in the first place, to get hold of a boat, and
to obtain provisions and water. It would be still more difficult to
slip away out of the harbour unperceived; and then, after all, we might
be picked up by one of Prince Rupert's squadron and treated as
deserters.

"Nothing risk, nothing have!" said Martin. "I would chance it for
myself, but I do not like the thought of hazarding your young lives.
Howsumdever, I'll speak to the men I think will join us, and hear what
they say."

The _Charles_ was one of the outer line of frigates placed at the
entrance of the harbour to give due notice of the approach of an enemy,
so that we should have a better opportunity of getting off than would
have been the case had we been higher up the harbour; but then the
difficulty of obtaining a boat was greater.

Many of the crew were allowed to go on shore, but we had hitherto always
been refused. Lancelot suggested that if we could by some means get on
shore, we might obtain a boat, and late in the evening pretend to be
returning in her to the ship, instead of which we might pass her and get
out to sea.

"I fear that the guard ships keep too sharp a look-out to allow us to do
that," observed Martin; "still, I see no better way of making our
escape."

"We must wait for our opportunity; it will come, maybe, when we least
expect it," said Lancelot.

Buoyed up with this hope, when our watch was over, we turned into our
hammocks.

Next morning a frigate came in, towing a boat. She passed close to us.
On her deck stood ten men heavily ironed, their features, which we could
clearly see, showing that they felt themselves to be in a dangerous
predicament. The fri