order."

"Yes, now I think of it, I did give him an order; but, of course, he
can have had nothing to do with it. Horton must have managed to unscrew
the porthole, somehow, perhaps with a pocketknife, and he might have
had a coil of rope somewhere in his cabin. Great carelessness, you
know. However, at a time like this, we need not bother our heads about
it. He's gone, and there's an end of it."

"He could not swim, sir," the captain said. "I heard him say so, once."

"Then most likely he's drowned," the admiral remarked briskly. "That's
the best thing that could happen. Enter it so in the log book:
'Lieutenant Horton fell out of his cabin window, while under arrest for
misconduct; supposed to have been drowned.' That settles the whole
matter."

Captain Peters smiled to himself, as he made the entry. He was
convinced, by the calm manner in which the admiral took it, that he
more than suspected that the prisoner had escaped, and that James
Walsham had had a hand in getting him off.

Shortly after Quebec surrendered, Townshend returned to England with
the fleet, leaving Murray in command of the army at Quebec. In the
spring, Levis advanced with eight or nine thousand men against Quebec;
and Murray, with three thousand, advanced to meet him, and gave battle
nearly on the same ground on which the previous battle had been fought.
The fight was a desperate one; but the English, being outflanked by the
superior numbers of the French, were driven back into Quebec, with the
loss of a third of their number.

Quebec was now besieged by the French until, in May, an English fleet
arrived, and destroyed the vessels which had brought down the stores
and ammunition of Levis from Montreal. The French at once broke up
their camp, and retreated hastily; but all hope was now gone, the loss
of Quebec had cut them off from France.

Amherst invaded the country from the English colonies, and the French
were driven back to Montreal, before which the united English forces,
17,000 strong, took up their position; and, on the 8th of September,
1760, Vaudreuil signed the capitulation, by which Canada and all its
dependencies passed to the English crown. All the French officers,
civil and military, and the French troops and sailors, were to be sent
back to France, in English ships.

James Walsham was not present at the later operations round Quebec. He
had been struck, in the side, by a shot by a lurking Indian, when a
column had marched