ury. The sails which had been spread out to
dry, were first carried up to form a bed for the sick and wounded, who,
in the space of an hour, were all made as comfortable as circumstances
would admit, a general bed having been made on the floor of the hut,
upon which they and the wounded Frenchmen shared the sails between them.
The spars and fragments were then brought up, and a fire made in the
long deserted hearth, while another was lighted outside for the men to
dry their clothes. The cask of rum was rolled up to the door, and a
portion, mixed with the water from a rill that trickled down the sides
of the adjacent mountain, served out to the exhausted parties. The
seamen, stripping off their clothes, and spreading them out to dry
before the fire which had been made outside, collected into the hut to
shield their naked bodies from the inclemency of the weather.

The spirits, which had been supplied with caution to the survivors of
the French vessel, had been eagerly seized by the one who had first
addressed our hero, and in half an hour he seemed to be quite revived.
He rose, and after trying his limbs, by moving slowly to and fro,
gradually recovered the entire use of them; and by the time that the
circulation of his blood had been thoroughly restored by a second dose
of spirits, appeared to have little to complain of. He was a powerful,
well-looking man, with a large head, covered with a profusion of shaggy
hair. Seymour looked at him earnestly, and thought he could not well be
mistaken, long as it was since they had been in company.

"Excuse me--but I think we once met at Cherbourg. Is not your name
Debriseau?"

"_Sacristie_!" replied the Frenchman, seizing himself by the hair, "_je
suis connu_! And who are you?"

"Oh! now I'm sure it's you," replied Seymour, laughing--"that's your old
trick--do you not recollect the boy that Captain McElvina took off the
wreck?"

"_Ah mon ami_--Seymour, I believe--midshipman, I believe," cried
Debriseau. "_Est-ce donc vous? Mais, mon Dieu, que c'est drole_"
(again pulling his hair as he grinded his teeth) "_Un diable de
rencontre_!"

"And how is it that you have been on board of a French man-of-war?"

"How! oh, I was unlucky after McElvina went away, and I thought, on
reflection, notwithstanding his arguments, that it was a dishonest sort
of concern. Being pretty well acquainted with the coasts, I shipped on
board as pilot."

"But, Debriseau, are you not a nativ