in sum, to open up communication with a base. So we returned
to France as we came.

On arriving at St. Jean de Luz, a startling rumour awaited us. The
steel-built Carlist privateer had been captured at the mouth of the
Adour; she had been taken a prize to San Sebastian; Stuart and Travers
were in close custody; and there were alarmists who whispered that they
would be tried by drum-head as pirates, and hung up in chains in the
cause of humanity. It was well for me I did not accept the invitation to
that water-party. I ran over to Bayonne to ascertain what particulars I
could, saw the Carlist Junta, the British and Spanish Vice-Consuls, and
from their combined and conflicting narratives was able to sift some
grains of the authentic. But the sudden first report was undeniable. The
weasel had been caught asleep.

The _San Margarita_ was a serious loss to the cause. She had cost
L3,500. She was very fast, being capable of a speed of between ten and
eleven knots an hour, and should be equal to fourteen knots if her
lifting screw had another blade. A three-bladed screw had been provided,
and was to have been fitted to her stern on her return from the
ill-fated expedition which put an end to her roving career. It was true
that the descendant of kings was under bolts and bars. The French
journals described him as a "Monsieur Stuart, a Scotch colonel,
entrusted by the English Catholics with collections for the Carlist
cause." They had never heard of his royal lineage, of his connection
with the Austrian cavalry, or of his exploits by the side of the unhappy
Maximilian in Mexico. He assumed the responsibility of ownership of the
vessel. The hue-and-cry description of him was "a man of forty to
forty-five years of age, over middle height, figure spare, features
thin, and resolute in expression."

The burly bronzed Corkonian was also in durance, and with the pair of
officers were a picked crew of thirteen Englishmen, including engineers,
steward, stokers, and able-bodied seamen, and one Spanish cabin-boy. A
Basque pilot, an old smuggler, familiar with every nook and crevice of
the Bay of Biscay, had escaped.

If reports were credible, the _San Margarita_ had already landed two
millions of cartridges, and an immense quantity of arms. Much vexation
was caused to the officers of the Spanish navy in those quarters by the
stories of the daring feats she had achieved, absolutely discharging a
cargo once on the very wharf of Lequeieto