ut ask her," said O'Grady. "Tell her that he's been with you
ever since you came to sea, and that you can't be separated from him."

Rosalie heard all Paul had to say, and promised that she would try to
arrange matters as he wished. Paul then described Reuben, and gave
Rosalie a slip of paper, on which he wrote: "Follow the bearer, and come
to us." Though Reuben was no great scholar, he hoped that he might be
able to read this.

"Tell her she's an angel," exclaimed O'Grady, as Rosalie took the paper.
"I wish that I could speak French, to say it myself; but I'll set to
work and learn at once. Ask her if she'll teach me."

Rosalie laughed, and replied that she thought the young Irishman would
prove an apt scholar, though she could not understand how, under the
circumstances, she could manage to do as he proposed.

"Och! but I've a mighty great mind to tell her at once all I intend to
do, and just clinch the matter," cried Paddy; but Paul wouldn't
undertake to translate for him, and advised him to restrain his feelings
for the present.

It was getting near midnight, when a gentle rap was heard at the door,
and Reuben poked in his head. The arrangements which had been made were
soon explained to him, and he undertook to feign lameness and to drop
behind and roll down the bank as they were to do.

"You sees, young gentlemen, if they goes in chase of me, that'll give
you a better chance of getting off. If they catches me, there'll be no
great harm done; they won't get me to fight for them, that I'll tell
them, and if I get off scot free, why there's little doubt but that I'll
be able to lend you a hand in getting to the coast, and crossing the
water afterwards."

The arrangements being made, Reuben stole down to rejoin the other
seamen, and the midshipmen then coiling themselves up in their blankets
in different corners of the room, resolved to remain there till summoned
in the morning, were soon asleep.

When their guards appeared, they made signs that they could not move,
O'Grady singing out, "Medecin, medecin," by which he wished to intimate
that he wanted physic, and they thought that he asked for a doctor. In
spite, however, of all their remonstrances, they were compelled to get
up and dress by sundry applications of a scabbard.

They found a breakfast prepared for them in the hall, though they had
but a few minutes allowed them to consume it before they were driven on
through the town to join the rest o