resolve. It was not at all an uncommon one
for midshipmen in those days to entertain, whatever may be the case at
present. They enjoyed their meal, and agreed that they had not eaten
anything half so good as the dishes they were discussing for many a long
day. Rosalie came back in about an hour. She said that she had been
thinking over the matter ever since, and talking it over with an old
aunt--a very wise woman, fertile in resources of all sorts. She advised
that the young Englishmen should pretend to be sick, and that if the
captain consented to leave them behind, so much the better; but if not,
and, as was most probable, he insisted on their walking on as before,
they should lag behind, and limp on till they came to a certain spot
which she described. They would rise for some time, till the road led
along the side of a wooded height, with cliffs on one side, and a steep,
sloping, brushwood--covered bank on the other, with a stream far down in
the valley below. There was a peculiar white stone at the side of the
road, on which they were to sit to pretend to rest themselves. If they
could manage to slip behind the stone for an instant, they might roll
and scramble down the bank to a considerable distance before they were
discovered. They were then to make their way through the brushwood and
to cross the stream, which was fordable, when they would find another
road, invisible from the one above. They were to run along it to the
right, till they came to an old hollow tree, in which they were to hide
themselves, unless they were overtaken by a covered cart, driven by a
man in white. He would slacken his speed, and they were to jump in
immediately without a word, and be covered up, while the cart would
drive on. They would be conveyed to the house of some friends to the
English, with whom they would remain till the search for them had
ceased, when they would be able to make their escape to the coast in
disguise. After that, they must manage as best they could to get across
the Channel.

"The first part is easy enough, if Miss Rosalie would give us the loan
of a little white paint or chalk," observed O'Grady; "but, faith, the
rest of the business is rather ticklish, though there's nothing like
trying, and we shall have some fun for our money at all events."

"I wish that Reuben Cole could manage to run with us. He'd go fast
enough if Miss Rosalie's friends would take care of him," remarked Paul.

"You can b