the same wool storehouse where
our regiment had been quartered in the early days of the campaign. We
gained little by the change, save that we found that our new guards
were somewhat more satiated with cruelty than our old ones, and were
therefore less exacting upon their prisoners. Not only were friends
allowed in occasionally to see us, but books and papers could be
obtained by the aid of a small present to the sergeant on duty. We were
able, therefore, to spend our time with some degree of comfort during
the month or more which passed before our trial.

One evening I was standing listlessly with my back against the wall,
looking up at a thin slit of blue sky which showed itself through the
narrow window, and fancying myself back in the meadows of Havant once
more, when a voice fell upon my ear which did, indeed, recall me to my
Hampshire home. Those deep, husky tones, rising at times into an angry
roar, could belong to none other than my old friend the seaman. I
approached the door from which the uproar came, and all doubt vanished
as I listened to the conversation.

'Won't let me pass, won't ye?' he was shouting. 'Let me tell you
I've held on my course when better men than you have asked me to veil
topsails. I tell you I have the admiral's permit, and I won't clew up
for a bit of a red-painted cock-boat; so move from athwart my hawse, or
I may chance to run you down.'

'We don't know nothing about admirals here,' said the sergeant of the
guard. 'The time for seeing prisoners is over for the day, and if you do
not take your ill-favoured body out of this I may try the weight o' my
halberd on your back.'

'I have taken blows and given them ere you were ever thought of, you
land-swab,' roared old Solomon. 'I was yardarm and yardarm with De
Ruyter when you were learning to suck milk; but, old as I am, I would
have you know that I am not condemned yet, and that I am fit to exchange
broadsides with any lobster-tailed piccaroon that ever was triced up to
a triangle and had the King's diamonds cut in his back. If I tack back
to Major Ogilvy and signal him the way that I have been welcomed, he'll
make your hide redder than ever your coat was.'

'Major Ogilvy!' exclaimed the sergeant, in a more respectful voice. 'If
you had said that your permit was from Major Ogilvy it would have been
another thing, but you did rave of admirals and commodores, and God
knows what other outlandish talk!'

'Shame on your parents that the