with lanterns to search
for the wounded. Will was lifted and carried to some barracks behind the
fort, where his wound was attended to. They asked whether he spoke French,
and as, though he had studied the language whenever he had had time and
opportunity and had acquired considerable knowledge of it, he was far from
being able to speak it fluently, he replied that he did not, a French
officer came to him.

"What is your name, monsieur?" he asked.

"William Gilmore."

"What is your rank?"

"Midshipman."

"Age?"

"Nearly nineteen."

"Nationality, English" was added.

"What ship was that from which you landed?"

There was no reason why the question should not be answered, and he
replied: "The _Tartar_, thirty-four guns."

"Ah, you have made a bad evening's business, monsieur!" the officer said.
"When the ship was seen to sail in and sail away again, after firing a few
shots, we felt sure that she would come back to-night, and five hundred
men were brought across from the mainland to give you a hot reception.
And, parbleu, we did so."

"You did indeed," Will said, "a desperately hot reception. I cannot tell
what our loss was, but it must have been very heavy. You took us
completely by surprise, which was what we had intended to do to you. Well,
it is the fortune of war, and I must not grumble."

"You will be sent to Toulon as soon as you can be moved, monsieur."

Three other wounded officers had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and
these were placed in the same room as Will. One was the third lieutenant,
another the master's mate, and the third was a midshipman. They were well
treated and cared for and were very cheery together, with the exception of
the lieutenant, whose wound was a mortal one, and who died two days after
the fight.

A month after their reception into the hospital all were able to walk, and
they were taken across in a boat to the mainland and sent to Toulon. They
were all asked if they would give their parole, and though his two
companions agreed to do so, Will refused. He was accordingly sent to a
place of confinement, while the other two were allowed to take quarters in
the town.

Will was privately glad of this, for, though both were pleasant fellows,
he thought that if he were to make his escape it must be alone, and had
the others been quartered with him he could not well have left them. His
prison was a fort on a hill which ran out into the sea, and Will could see
the sails o