months. During this time, the Speedy arrived as far
south as the line; then she hovered about the Canaries and the Azores, on
her way homeward, looking in vain for another Frenchman. I was permitted
to take exercise, twice a day, once in the gangway, and once on the
gun-deck, and my table was actually supplied from the cabin. On no head,
had I any other cause to complain, than the fact that my ship had been
wrongfully seized in the first place, and that I was now suffering
imprisonment for a crime--if crime indeed it would have been--that I
certainly had not been obliged to commit.

During the five months I thus remained a prisoner on the gun-deck of the
Speedy, I never exchanged a syllable with either Marble or Neb. I saw them
both occasionally, employed on duty, like the crew, and we often exchanged
significant looks, but never any words. Occasionally I had a visit from an
officer; these gentlemen sitting down and conversing with me, on general
topics, evidently to relieve the tedium of my confinement, without making
any allusion to its cause. I cannot say that my health suffered, a
circumstance that was probably owing to the cleanliness of the ship, and
the admirable manner in which she was ventilated.

At length we went into port, carrying with us a French ship from one of
the islands to the eastward of the Cape, as a prize. The Speedy captured
this vessel, after a smart chase to the northward of the Azores, and
Marble and Neb having volunteered to do so, were sent on board her, as two
of the prize-crew. That day I got a visit from the purser, who was the
most attentive of all my acquaintances, and I took the liberty of asking
him if it were possible my two shipmates had entered into the
British service.

"Why not exactly that," he said, "though they seem to like us, and we
think both will ship rather than lose the prize-money they might get, for
their services in the Briton. Your old mate is a prime fellow, the master
tells me; but my lord fancying we might meet some French cruiser in the
chops of the channel, thought it better to send these two chaps in the
prize, lest they should take the studs and refuse to fight at the pinch.
They have done duty, they say, to keep themselves in good health; and we
humour them, to be frank with you, under the notion they may get to like
us so well, as not to wish to quit us."

This gave me an insight into the true state of the case, and I felt much
easier on the subject. Tha