captors
behaved with the customary naval courtesy. They were over-joyed at their
good fortune, and gave their prisoners to eat and to drink--champagne to
the officers and chacoli to the men. They towed their prize into the bay
of St. Sebastian, and there was triumph. The yellow and scarlet flag of
Spain was over the wee _San Margarita_ as she entered, and Colonel
Stuart and Captain Travers and their companions must have felt sore,
for all the good cheer and generous wine. Still there was quite a
courtly scene on board--hand-shakings and reciprocal compliments--as
they were marched off to the dungeon of the Castillo de la Mota on a
hill in the city, where they were incarcerated. There they did not fall
on such pleasant lines as afloat. The Republicans lost no time in
unloading the vessel. They took off her, with a hurry that betrayed
apprehension, 1,545 carbines and six Berdan breech-loaders, with a
number of armourer's tools. It was remarked that the rifles supplied to
the regular troops from Madrid were sighted to eight hundred metres, but
that the range of those seized from the Carlists did not exceed five
hundred.

I went over to San Sebastian by tug from Socoa on the 16th of August,
and sent up my card to M. de Brunet, the British Vice-Consul. He said he
had called on the prisoners, and that the sailors murmured at their
treatment. If I went to the citadel, after three--as it was Saturday
afternoon, and visiting hours commenced then--I could see them without
difficulty. I did clamber up the hill, and found this was not the case.
On owning that I had no pass from the military governor, I was denied
admittance. Happening to meet the commandant, I represented what I
wanted, and he very civilly granted me leave to visit the prisoners
"para un momento." As the gates were thrown open Stuart advanced and met
me, grasping my hand cordially, and slipping a letter up the sleeve of
my coat. He had caught sight of me labouring up the hill, and had
immediately hastened to scribble a few lines which he trusted to my
sympathy with misfortune to smuggle to their destination for him. He was
not mistaken, and in so doing I had no qualm of conscience. I
accompanied him to his cell, and he told me the story of the capture of
the _San Margarita_. It was substantially as I have related; they
thought they were in a _mare clausum_, at all events they had drifted
out of it on the tide of fate; but there was a nice question of
international