ing. The
cat's-paws came thicker and thicker, the dark blue line increasing in
width, till in a short time we were staggering away before as brisk a
breeze as the little craft could desire. All languor quickly vanished,
and we served out an additional supply of water to our poor sheep. My
anxiety, however, did not cease, for just afterwards, as I was sweeping
the horizon with my telescope, I saw, rising above it, the royals of a
square-rigged ship, the same, I concluded, which I had seen at the
commencement of the calm. She might be a friend, or an English ship,
and be ready to supply us with any necessaries we might require: but I
had taken it into my head that she was an enemy, and I could not tell to
what treatment we might be subjected. Sometimes French officers behaved
very kindly to passengers captured by them, but during the republican
period many of those in command were brutal men, who outraged all the
laws of humanity when they got the crews and passengers of an English
ship into their power. I, of course, said nothing of this to my wife or
children. I, however consulted with Charley White and Peter, and we
agreed that it would be more prudent to alter our course to the
northward for a few hours, so as to allow the ship to pass us during the
night. Though we were not now visible to her, when the sun came to set
in the west she would have got so far nearer to us that his rays falling
on our canvas, we should be probably seen from her tops.

This plan we followed. Charley White had become even more anxious than
I was, and he was constantly going aloft to watch the stranger. Half an
hour before sunset, we could see half way down her topsails from the
deck. Though they looked no bigger than a small pocket handkerchief,
the sharp eyes of my girls caught sight of them, and seemed much
surprised that we were not eager to speak with the stranger. I was very
glad when darkness hid us, as I hoped, from her. We arranged, however,
to keep a bright look out all night, and to furl everything, should she
pass near us, so as to escape observation. Charley and Peter kept a
watch together. They insisted on my turning in after my first watch was
over, and in truth I could leave the vessel in their care with as much
confidence as if I had her myself.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

A JOYFUL DISCOVERY.

More than once I saw in my dreams a big ship closing rapidly with us and
the French flag run up at the main, and a voice