rets_ now to 'ave _opportunite_ to _cultiver
votre connaissance. Mais_, I most laafs,--_mille pardons_,--you ave _non_
too moch peep's, _mais c'est impossible d'abandonner mes compatriots.
Allons, mes enfants; au canot_."

This was the signal for the French to quit us; the three men I had shipped
taking their departure without ceremony. Mons. Gallois was the last in the
boat, of course; and he found time to squeeze my hand once more, and to
renew his "_vifs regrets_" at not having more leisure to cultivate my
acquaintance. The corvette was already so near, as to render it necessary
for the Polisson to be in motion; another time, perhaps, we might be more
fortunate.

In this manner did I part from a man who had not scrupled to seize me in
distress, as he would a waif on a beach. By manning me, the prize-crew
would have fallen into the hands of the enemy; and, making a merit of
necessity, Mons. Gallois was disposed to be civil to those whom he could
not rob. Odd as it may seem, I felt the influence of this manner, to a
degree that almost reconciled me to the act before committed, although the
last was just as profligate and illegal as any that could well be
committed. Of so much more importance, with the majority of men, is manner
than matter; a very limited few alone knowing how to give to the last its
just ascendency.

The Polisson was not long in gathering way, after her boat was hoisted in.
She passed, on the crest of a wave, so near, that it was easy to
distinguish the expressions of her people's faces, few of which discovered
the equanimity of that of their commander's; and to hear the incessant
gabbling that was kept up on board her, day and night, from "morn 'till
dewy eve." M. Gallois bowed complaisantly, and he smiled as amiably as if
he never had put a hand in another man's pocket; but his glass was
immediately turned towards the corvette, which now began to give him some
little uneasiness. Manning us, indeed, with that fellow surging ahead at
the rate he was, would have been quite out of the question.

Being reduced to our old number of four, I saw no use in working ourselves
to death, by filling the top-sail, with the certainty the sloop-of-war
would make us round-to again. The Dawn, therefore, remained stationary,
wailing the issue with philosophical patience.

"There is no use, Moses, in endeavouring to escape," I remarked; "we are
not strong-handed enough to get sail on the ship before the fellow will