free, I don't care a rope-yarn for all the
trouble we have had, nor if we had had ten times as much. But we ought
to report ourselves to the captain; and we think--that is, Gerrard
does--that we ought to let our prisoners take back the sloop which we
ran away with."

"I agree with Gerrard, and so I am sure will the captain," said
Devereux.

The frigate on board which the three adventurers so unexpectedly and
happily found themselves was the _Proserpine_, Captain Percy, of
forty-two guns. As she was on her trial cruise, having only just been
fitted out, she was short of midshipmen, and Captain Percy offered to
give both O'Grady and Paul a rating on board if Reuben would enter.
This he willingly did, and they thus found themselves belonging to the
ship. The occupants of the berth received them both very cordially, and
paid especial attention to Paul, of whom Devereux had spoken to them in
the warmest terms of praise. The surprise of the Frenchman and boy on
board the sloop was very great, when Paul and Reuben, accompanied by
some prisoners from the prize, appeared and released them; and when Paul
told them that they might return home, and that some countrymen had come
to help them navigate the ship, to express his joy and gratitude, he
would have kissed them both had they allowed him; and he seemed at a
loss how otherwise to show it, except by skipping and jumping about, on
his deck. When he shortly afterwards passed the _Proserpine_, he and
his companions waved their hats, and attempted to raise a cheer; but it
sounded very weak and empty, or, as Reuben observed to one of his new
shipmates, "It was no more like a British cheer than the squeak of a
young porker is to a boatswain's whistle."

The prize thus easily gained was sent into Portsmouth, and the
_Proserpine_ continued her cruise. O'Grady and Paul would have liked to
have gone in her; but they thought it better to wait till the frigate
herself returned to port, when they might get leave to go home and visit
their friends, and perhaps take a little prize-money with them to make
up for what they had lost. They easily got a temporary rig-out on
board, so that there was no absolute necessity for their going. Paul
had hitherto, young as he was, held up manfully in spite of all the
fatigue and anxiety he had gone through; but no sooner had the prize
disappeared, than his strength and spirits seemed to give way. He kept
in the berth for a day or two; but coul