mensions and number of his pigmy fleet. He was evidently much pleased
with the admiration we expressed at the care and skill exhibited in
working out his quaint idea; and when we had minutely inspected every
part of it he led us to a comfortable airy little workshop, concealed in
a kind of brake among the trees, where we found a good stock of wood,
with a capital supply of tools and everything necessary to the proper
carrying out of our task. We did not do anything in the way of work on
that day, however, for by the time that we had seen everything and had
taken a walk to the seaward extremity of the park the sun was getting
low, and the time had arrived for us to see about getting back to the
castle.

Oh, how we enjoyed the luxury of that first dinner at the castle!--the
only decent meal of which we had partaken since our landing--with the
quiet evening which followed it, spent in a large, lofty, well-furnished
apartment, lighted up by a massive silver lamp of elaborate workmanship,
and cooled by the light evening breeze which floated in through the
widely-opened casements. Stretched luxuriously in a couple of low
comfortable sloping-backed chairs, we sat at one of these open casements
discussing a bottle of excellent wine, and looking out upon the dark
woods which surrounded the building, watching the full moon soar into
the cloudless sky from behind the gently-swaying foliage, and listening
to the song of the nightingale, amidst which we once or twice thought we
detected the tinkling sounds of a guitar apparently issuing from one of
the open windows in another wing of the castle.

We retired early to rest that night, after a bath, not so much because
we were tired, but rather to enjoy the unwonted luxury of rest in an
actual bed, with the pleasant accompaniment of clean sweet-smelling
linen.

We were disappointed, however, in our anticipations of a sound night's
sleep. After making shift for so long with a heap of straw spread on a
hard pavement, the beds seemed too soft and yielding to our unaccustomed
limbs, and we lay tossing to and fro for a long time before we
eventually dropped off to sleep. This trifling inconvenience
disappeared, however, after a few nights' experience.

We were up and stirring by daybreak next morning, and a few minutes
later we might have been seen scudding across the park on our way to a
certain rocky pool on the beach, which the commandant had pointed out to
us the day before as