a piece of soap--afterwards
rejected upon the urgent representation of Bob Summers that the French
_never_ used soap, much less carried it about with them--and a few other
necessaries of trifling bulk, together with a small sketch-book and a
box of colours; my idea being that the best way to elude inconvenient
attention was by neither courting nor avoiding it, and my intention was
to endeavour to pass as a young German artist student on a sketching
tour, a sufficient knowledge of German and drawing for such a purpose
being among my accomplishments. Lastly, I summoned up courage to ask of
Mr Annesley the loan of a pair of beautiful little pocket-pistols which
I had frequently noticed when I had had occasion to go to his cabin.

This completed my equipment, and by the time that I was ready and once
more on deck the frigate had approached to within some six miles of the
land, and was in the act of heaving-to, it being considered that we were
now as close in as it was prudent to go.

When I stepped on deck, Captain Hood was on the quarter-deck, talking to
Mr Annesley and Mr Rawlings, the master--who was so far convalescent
as to be able once more to resume the duties of his post--and as I
approached the group, I heard the skipper remark, "And so you know
Ajaccio well, Mr Rawlings?"

"Ay, ay, sir," responded the master, "almost as well as I know
Portsmouth Harbour; I have been in there twice, and can put the ship
wherever you want her, within a fathom or so, dark as it is."

"Is there not a ruin of some sort close to the water's edge, about six
miles to the southward of the town?"

"There is, sir; an old chapel I believe it is. The ground rises rather
steeply from the water's edge there, and is covered with trees. The
ruin stands just on the edge of an over-hanging bank, about thirty feet
above high-water mark; and the beach below is--or was when I saw it
last--littered with stones and blocks of masonry which have fallen from
the building."

"Would it be safe to attempt a landing there with a boat on such a night
as this?" asked the skipper.

"Couldn't find a safer spot to land on anywhere in the island,"
confidently replied Rawlings. "The beach is all shingle, and pretty
steep, bottom quite clear of rocks, and not a ripple there with the wind
this way. Run the boat's nose up high and dry, and jump out on to the
beach without wetting your feet. Then, as to the chance of being
discovered, the place is dreadful l