by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XIV
THE GLORIOUS FIRST OF JUNE
It was while besieging Calvi that the news came of the great sea-battlefought in the Channel by Lord Howe, and very much interested were thesailors on shore in Corsica at hearing the details of the victory. A vastfleet had assembled at Spithead under the command of the veteran LordHowe. It had two objects in view besides the primary one of engaging theenemy. First, the convoying of the East and West India and Newfoundlandmerchant fleets clear of the Channel; and next, of intercepting a Frenchconvoy returning from America laden with the produce of the West IndiaIslands. It consisted of thirty-four line-of-battle ships and fifteenfrigates, while the convoy numbered ninety-nine merchantmen.
On 2nd May, 1794, the fleet sailed from Spithead, and on the 5th theyarrived off the Lizard. Here Lord Howe ordered the convoys to part companywith the fleet, and detached Rear-admiral Montagu with six seventy-foursand two frigates with orders to see the merchantmen to the latitude ofCape Finisterre, where their protection was to be confided to CaptainRainier with two battle-ships and four frigates.
Lord Howe now proceeded to Ushant, where he discovered, by means of hisfrigates, that the enemy's fleet were quietly anchored in the harbour ofBrest.
He therefore proceeded in search of the American convoy. After cruising invarious directions for nearly a fortnight he returned to Ushant on the18th May, only to find that Brest harbour was empty. News was obtainedfrom an American vessel that the French fleet had sailed from that harboura few days before. It afterwards turned out that the two fleets had passedquite close to each other unseen, owing to a dense fog that prevailed atthe time. They were exactly the same strength in numbers, but the Frenchcarried much heavier guns, and their crews exceeded ours by three thousandmen.
For more than a week the two fleets cruised about in the Bay of Biscay,each taking many prizes, but without meeting. At last, early on themorning of the 28th of May, they came in sight of each other. The Frenchwere to windward, and, having a strong south west wind with them, theycame down rapidly towards us, as if anxious to fight. Presently theyshortened sail and formed line of battle. Howe signalled to prepare forbattle, and having come on to the same tack as the French, stood towardsthem, having them on his weather quarter. Soon, however, the French tackedand seemed to retreat. A general chase was ordered, and the English shipswent off in pursuit under full sail. Between two and three o'clock the_Russell_, which was the fastest of the seventy-fours, began to exchangeshots with the French, and towards evening another seventy-four, the_Bellerophon_, began a close action with the _Revolutionnaire_, onehundred and ten guns. The _Bellerophon_ soon lost her main top-mast, anddropped back; but the fight with the great ship was taken up, first by the_Leviathan_ and afterwards by the _Audacious_, both seventy-fours, which,supported by two others, fought her for three hours. By that time the_Revolutionnaire_ had a mast carried away and great damage done to heryards, and had lost four hundred men. When darkness fell she was acomplete wreck, and it was confidently expected that in the morning shewould fall into our hands. At break of day, however, the French admiralsent down a ship which took her in tow, for her other mast had fallenduring the night, and succeeded in taking her in safety to Rochefort. The_Audacious_ had suffered so severely in the unequal fight that she wasobliged to return to Plymouth to repair damages.
During the night the hostile fleets steered under press of canvas on aparallel course, and when daylight broke were still as near together as onthe previous day, but the firing was of a desultory character, Lord Howe'sefforts to bring on a general engagement being thwarted by some of theships misunderstanding his signals. The next day was one of intense fog,but on the 31st the weather cleared, and the fleets towards evening wereless than five miles apart. A general action might have been brought on,but Lord Howe preferred to wait till daylight, when signals could moreeasily be made out. Our admiral was surprised that none of the Frenchships showed any damage from the action of the 29th. It was afterwardsfound that they had since been joined by four fresh ships, and that thevessels that had suffered most had been sent into Brest.
During the 31st various manoeuvres had been performed, which ended bygiving us the weather-gage; and the next morning, the 1st of June, LordHowe signalled that he intended to attack the enemy, and that each shipwas to steer for the one opposed to her in the line. The ships werearranged so that each vessel should be opposite one of equal size. The_Defence_ led the attack, and came under a heavy fire. The admiral's ship,the _Queen Charlotte_, pressed forward, replying with her quarter-deckguns only to the fire of some of the French ships which assailed her asshe advanced, keeping the fire of her main-deck guns for the Frenchadmiral, whom he intended to attack. So close and compact, however, werethe French lines that it was no easy matter to pass through. As the _QueenCharlotte_ came under the stern of the _Montagne_ she poured in atremendous fire from her starboard guns at such close quarters that therigging of the two vessels were touching. The _Jacobin_, the next ship tothe _Montagne_, shifted her position and took up that which the _QueenCharlotte_ had intended to occupy. Lord Howe then engaged the two vessels,and his fire was so quick that ere long both had to fall out of the fight.A furious combat followed between the _Queen Charlotte_ and the _Juste_,in which the latter was totally dismasted. The former lost hermain-topmast, and as she had previously lost her fore-topmast she becametotally unmanageable.
Thus almost single-handed, save for the distant fire of the _Invincible_,Lord Howe fought these three powerful ships. At this time a fourthadversary appeared in the _Republicain_, one hundred and ten guns,carrying the flag of Rear-admiral Bouvet. Just as they were going toengage, however, the _Gibraltar_ poured in a broadside, bringing down themain and mizzen-masts of the Frenchman, who bore up and passed under thestern of the _Queen Charlotte_, but so great was the confusion on boardher that she neglected to rake the flagship.
The _Montagne_, followed by the _Jacobin_, now crowded on all sail; andLord Howe, thinking they intended to escape, gave the order for a generalchase, but they were joined by nine other ships, and wore round and sailedtowards the _Queen_. This craft was almost defenceless, owing to the lossof her mainmast and mizzen-topmast.
Seeing her danger, Lord Howe signalled to his ships to close round her,and he himself wore round and stood to her assistance.
He was followed by five other battle-ships, and Admiral Villaret-Joyeusegave up the attempt and sailed to help his own crippled ships, and, takingfive of them in tow, made off.
Six French battle-ships were captured, and the _Vengeur_, which had beenengaged in a desperate fight with the _Brunswick_, went down ten minutesafter she surrendered.
The British loss in the battle of the 1st of June, and in the preliminaryskirmishes of the 28th and 29th of May, was eleven hundred andforty-eight, of whom two hundred and ninety were killed and eight hundredand fifty-eight wounded.
The French placed their loss in killed and mortally wounded at threethousand, so that their total loss could not have been much under seventhousand.
Decisive as the victory was, it was the general opinion in the fleet thatmore ought to have been done; that the five disabled ships should havebeen taken, and a hot chase instituted after the flying enemy. Indeed, theonly explanation of this inactivity was that the admiral, who was now anold man, was so enfeebled and exhausted by the strain through which he hadgone as to be incapable of coming to any decision or of giving any order.
One of the most desperate combats in this battle was that which took placebetween the _Brunswick_, seventy-four guns, under Captain John Harvey, andthe _Vengeur_, also a seventy-four. The _Brunswick_ had not been engagedin the battles of the 28th and 29th of May, but she played a brilliantpart on the 1st of June. She was exposed to a heavy fire as the fleet boredown to attack, and she suffered some losses before she had fired a shot.She steered for the interval between the _Achille_ and _Vengeur_. Theformer vessel at once took up a position closing the gap,
and CaptainHarvey then ran foul of the _Vengeur_, her anchors hooking in the portfore channels of the Frenchman.
The two ships now swung close alongside of each other, and, paying offbefore the wind, they ran out of the line, pouring their broadsides intoeach other furiously.
The upper-deck guns of the _Vengeur_ got the better of those of the_Brunswick_, killing several officers and men, and wounding Captain Harveyso severely as to compel him to go below.
At this moment the _Achille_ bore down on the _Brunswick's_ quarter, butwas received by a tremendous broadside, which brought down her remainingmast, a foremast. The wreck prevented the _Achille_ from firing, and shesurrendered; but as the _Brunswick_ was too busy to attend to her, shehoisted a sprit-sail--a sail put up under the bowsprit--and endeavoured tomake off.
Meantime the _Brunswick_ and _Vengeur_, fast locked, continued theirdesperate duel. The upper-deck guns of the former were almost silenced,but on the lower decks the advantage was the other way. Alternatelydepressing and elevating their guns to their utmost extent, the Britishsailors either fired through their enemy's bottom or ripped up her decks.
Captain Harvey, who had returned to the deck, was again knocked down by asplinter, but continued to direct operations till he was struck in theright arm and so severely injured as to force him to give up the command,which now devolved on Lieutenant Cracroft, who, however, continued tofight the ship as his captain had done.
After being for some three hours entangled, the two ships separated, the_Vengeur_ tearing away the _Brunswick's_ anchor. As they drifted apart,some well-aimed shots from the _Brunswick_ smashed her enemy's rudder-postand knocked a large hole in the counter. At this moment the _Ramillies_,sailing up, opened fire at forty yards' distance at this particular hole.In a few minutes she reduced the _Vengeur_ to a sinking condition, andthen proceeded to chase the _Achille_. The _Vengeur_ now surrendered. The_Brunswick_, however, could render no assistance, all her boats beingdamaged, but, hoisting what sail she could, headed northward with theintention of making for port. During the fight the _Brunswick_ lost hermizzen, and had her other masts badly damaged, her rigging and sails cutto pieces, and twenty-three guns dismounted. She lost three officers andforty-one men killed; her captain, second lieutenant, one midshipman, andone hundred and ten men wounded. Captain Harvey only survived his wounds afew months.
The greater portion of the crew of the _Vengeur_ were taken off by theboats of the _Alfred_, _Culloden_, and _Rattler_, but she sank before allcould be rescued, and two hundred of her crew, most of whom were wounded,were drowned. Among the survivors were Captain Renaudin and his son. Eachwas ignorant of the rescue of the other, and when they met by chance atPortsmouth their joy can be better imagined than described.
* * * * *
The _Tartar_ returned to the blockade of Toulon after the work in Corsicawas done. When she had been there some time she was ordered to cruise onthe coast, where there were several forts under which Frenchcoasting-vessels ran for shelter when they saw an English sailapproaching, and she was, if possible, to destroy them. There was oneespecially, on one of the Isles d'Hyeres, which the _Tartar_ wasparticularly ordered to silence, as more than any other it was the resortof coasters. The _Tartar_ sailed in near enough to it to exchange shots,and so got some idea of the work they had to undertake; then, havinglearned all she could, she stood out to sea again. All preparations weremade during the day for a landing; arms were distributed, and the men toldoff to the boats. After nightfall she again sailed in, and arrived off theforts about midnight. The boats had already been lowered, and the men tooktheir places in them while the _Tartar_ was still moving through thewater, and, dividing into three parties, made respectively for the threeprincipal batteries.
Dimchurch was not in the boat in which Will had a place, as he rowedstroke of the first gig and Will was in the launch. Tom was also inanother boat, but was in the same division. No lights were to be seen, andabsolute silence reigned. Noiselessly the men landed and formed up on thebeach. To reach the batteries they had to climb the cliff by a zigzagpathway, up which they were obliged to go in single file. They arrived atthe summit without apparently creating a suspicion of their presence, andthen advanced at a run. Suddenly three blue lights gleamed out,illuminating the whole of the ground they had to traverse, and at the samemoment a tremendous volley was fired from the battery. Simultaneously fireopened from the other batteries, showing that the boats' crews had allarrived just at the same instant, and that while the French were supposedto be asleep they were awake and vigilant. Indeed, from the heaviness ofthe fire there was little question that the force on the island had beenheavily reinforced from the mainland.
Numbers of the men fell, but nevertheless the sailors rushed forwardfearlessly and reached the foot of the fort. This was too high to beclimbed, so, separating, they ran round to endeavour to effect an entranceelsewhere. Suddenly they were met by a considerable body of troops. Thefirst lieutenant, who commanded the division, whistled the order for thesailors to fall back. This was done at first slowly and in some sort oforder, but the fire kept up on them was so hot that they were compelled toincrease their pace to a run. A stand was made at the top of the pass, ashere the men were only able to retreat in single file. At length thesurvivors all reached the beach and took to the boats again under a heavyfire from the top of the cliffs, which, however, was to some extent keptdown by the guns of the _Tartar_. The other divisions had suffered almostas severely, and the affair altogether cost the _Tartar_ fifty killed andover seventy wounded. Will was in the front rank when the French sosuddenly attacked them, and was in the rear when the retreat began.Suddenly a shot struck him in the leg and he fell. In the confusion thiswas not noticed, and he lay there for upwards of an hour, when, the fireof the _Tartar_ having ceased, the French came out with lanterns to searchfor the wounded. Will was lifted and carried to some barracks behind thefort, 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 andopportunity and had acquired considerable knowledge of it, he was far frombeing able to speak it fluently, he replied that he did not, a Frenchofficer 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 hereplied: "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 fewshots, we felt sure that she would come back to-night, and five hundredmen 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 tellwhat our loss was, but it must have been very heavy. You took uscompletely 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, andthese 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 welltreated and cared for and were very cheery together, with the exception ofthe lieutenant, whose wound was a mortal one, and who died two days afterthe fight.
A month after their reception into the hospital all were able to walk, andthey were taken across in a boat to the mainland and sent to Toulon. Theywere all asked if they would give their parole, and though his twocompanions agreed to do so, Will refused. He was accordingly sent to aplace of confinement, while the other two were allowed to take quarters inthe town.
Will was privately glad of this, for, though both were pleasan
t fellows,he thought that if he were to make his escape it must be alone, and hadthe others been quartered with him he could not well have left them. Hisprison was a fort on a hill which ran out into the sea, and Will could seethe sails of the blockading vessels as they cruised backwards andforwards. He also commanded a view over the town, with its harbour crowdedwith shipping, its churches, and fortifications. He longed continually forthe company of his two faithful followers, Dimchurch and Tom. They hadbeen with him in all his adventures, and he felt that if they weretogether again they would be able to contrive some plan of escape. Atpresent no scheme occurred to him. The window of the room in which he wasconfined was twenty feet from the ground, and was protected by iron bars.In front was a wall some twelve feet high, enclosing a courtyard in whichthe garrison paraded and drilled. At night sentinels were planted at shortintervals, from which Will concluded that there must be many otherprisoners besides himself in the fort. He was attended by an old soldier,with whom he often had long chats.
"They certainly know how to make prisons," he grumbled to himself. "If itwas not that I shall never lose hope of something turning up, I wouldaccept my parole."
After he had been there for three months he was one day led out and, withthree other midshipmen, taken down to a prison in the town. He had nodoubt that prisoners of more importance had arrived, and that he and theothers had been moved to make way for them. A month later they were againtaken out, and, having been joined by a hundred other prisoners under astrong guard, were marched out of the town. There were five officers amongthem, and the rest were seamen. All were glad of the change, though it wasnot likely to be for the better. Will was sorry, inasmuch as at Toulon hecould always hope that if he escaped from prison he would be able to gethold of a boat and row out to the blockading squadron. Inland he felt thatescape would be vastly more difficult. Even if he got out of prison heknew but little French, and therefore could hardly hope to make his wayacross country. They trudged along day after day, each according to hisfancy, some sullen and morose, others making the best of matters andtrying to establish some speaking acquaintance with their guards, whoevidently regarded the march as a sort of holiday after the dull routineof life in a garrison town. Will, who had during his imprisonment atToulon studied to improve his French to the best of his ability by the aidof some books he had obtained and by chatting with his jailer, worked hishardest to add to his knowledge of the language, and as the Frenchsoldiers were quite glad to beguile the time away by talking with theircaptives, he succeeded at the end of the journey, which lasted nearly amonth, in being able to chat with a certain amount of fluency. Verdun wasone of the four places in which British prisoners were confined. At thattime France had fifteen thousand prisoners, England forty thousand. By anagreement between the governments these were held captive in certainprisons, so that they could, when occasion offered, be exchanged; butowing to the vastly greater number of English prisoners the operation wenton very slowly. The health of the prison was bad, the large numberconfined in the narrow space, and the lack of sanitary arrangements,causing a vast amount of fever to prevail.
When he got to Verdun, Will continued to devote himself to the study ofFrench. He knew that, should he escape, he could have no hope of findinghis way across country unless he could speak the language fluently, andaccordingly he passed the whole day in conversation with the guards andothers employed about the prison. These were inclined to regard hisanxiety to become proficient in the language as a national compliment.Some of the prisoners also knew French well, so that at the end of fourmonths he could talk with perfect fluency. He was a good deal laughed atby the English officers for the zeal he was displaying in studying French,for, as they said, he might as well try to get to the moon as out ofVerdun. He accepted their chaff good-humouredly, and simply said: "Timewill show, but for my part I would as soon be shot as continue to live asprisoner here."
Many of the prisoners passed their time in manufacturing little trifles.The sailors, for the most part, made models of ships; some of them wereadepts at sewing patchwork quilts, and got their warders to purchasescraps of various materials for the purpose. The soldiers were also, manyof them, skilled in making knick-knacks. These were sold in the town,chiefly to country people who came in to market, and so their makers wereable to purchase tobacco and other little luxuries. A few of the prisonerswere allowed every day to go into the town, which, being strongly walled,offered no greater facility for escape than did the prison itself. Theycarried with them and sold their own manufactures and those of otherprisoners, and with the proceeds purchased the things they required.
Several times Will was one of those allowed out, and he set himself towork to make the acquaintance of some of the townspeople. As he was one ofthe few who could speak French, he had no difficulty in getting up achatty acquaintance with several people, among them a young girl living ina house close to the wall. She had looked pitifully at him the first timehe had come out with a small load of merchandise.
"Ah, my poor young fellow," she said in French, "how hard it is for you tobe thus kept a prisoner far from all your friends!"
"Thank you, mademoiselle," he said, "but it is the fortune of war, andEnglish as well as French must submit to it."
"You speak French!" she said. "Yes, yes, monsieur, I feel it as much asany. There is one who is very dear to me a prisoner in England. He is asoldier."
"Well, mademoiselle, it is a pity that they don't exchange us. We give alot of trouble to your people, and the French prisoners give a lot oftrouble to ours, so it would be much better to restore us to our friends."
"Ah! that is what I say. How happy I should be if my dear Lucien wererestored to me."
So the acquaintance became closer and closer, and at last Will ventured tosay: "If I were back in England, mademoiselle, I might perhaps get yourLucien out. You could give me his name and the prison in which he isconfined, and it would be hard if I could not manage to aid him toescape."
"Ah, monsieur, that would be splendid!" the girl said, clasping her hands."If you could but get away!"
"Well, mademoiselle, I think I could manage to escape if I had but alittle help. For example, from the top window of this house I think Icould manage to jump upon the wall, and if you could but furnish me with arope I could easily make my escape. Of course I should want a suit ofpeasant's clothes, for, you see, I should be detected at once if I triedto get away in this uniform. I speak French fairly now, and think I couldpass as a native."
"You speak it very well, monsieur, but oh, I dare not help you to escape!"
"I am not asking you to, mademoiselle; I am only saying how it could bemanaged, and that if I could get back to England I might aid your lover."
The girl was silent.
"It could never be," she murmured.
"I am not asking it, mademoiselle; and now I must be going on."
The next time he came she said: "I have been thinking over what you said,monsieur, and I feel that it would be cowardly indeed if I were to shrinkfrom incurring some little danger for the sake of Lucien. I know that hewould give his life for me. We were to have been married in a fortnight,when they came and carried him off to the war. Now tell me exactly whatyou want me to do."
"I want a disguise, the dress of a travelling pedlar. I could give you twoEnglish sovereigns, which would be ample to get that. I want also a ropeforty feet long. Then you must let me go up through your house to the topstory. I have been looking at it from behind, and see that from the upperwindow I could climb up to the roof, and I am sure that from there I couldeasily jump across the narrow lane to the wall."
"I will do it, monsieur, partly for Lucien and partly because you are kindand gentle and," she added with a little blush and laugh, "good-looking."
"I thank you with all my heart, mademoiselle, and I swear to you that whenI get to England I will spare no pains to find Lucien and aid him toescape."
"When will you be out again, monsieur?"
"This day week."
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p; "I will have everything ready by that time," she said. "You will come aslate as you can?"
"Yes, I will come the last thing before we all have to return to theprison. It will be dark half an hour later."
"But there are sentries on the walls," she said.
"Yes, but not a large number. The prison is strongly guarded at night, butnot the outer walls; I have often watched. There is one other thing whichI shall want, and that is a sack in which to put this long box. I carryit, as you see, full of goods, but to-day I have intentionally abstainedfrom selling any of them. I will leave the things with you if you have anyplace in which to hide them."
"I will put them under my bed," the girl said. "My grand'mere never goesinto my room. Besides, she is generally away at the time you will arrive,and if she is not she will not hear you go upstairs, as she is very deaf.My father is one of the warders of the prison, and only comes home once aweek."
Will then returned to the prison. When the appointed day arrived he putonly a few small articles into his box. For these he paid cash. Then hesaid good-bye to four or five of the officers with whom he was mostfriendly.
"You are mad to try to escape," one of them said, "there is no gettingover the walls."
"I am going to try at any rate. I am utterly sick of this life."
"But you may be exchanged before long."
"It is most improbable," he said. "Only a few are exchanged at a time, andas I have not a shadow of influence my name would not be included in thelist."
"But how are you going to attempt it?"
"Now that I must keep to myself. A plan may succeed once, but may fail ifit is tried again. I really think I have a chance of getting through, butof course I may be caught. However, I am going to take the risk."
"Well, I wish you luck, but I can hardly even hope that you will succeed."
After going about the town as usual, without making any serious effort tosell his goods, Will made his way, towards the end of the day, to thehouse in the lane. Marie was standing at the door. As he approached shelooked anxiously up and down the street, to be certain that there was noone there, and then beckoned to him to enter quickly. He obeyed at once,and she closed the door behind him. "Are you sure no one saw you enter,monsieur?" she said.
"Yes," he said, "I am quite certain."
"Now," said Marie, "you must go at once up to the attic in case mygrand'mere should come in. I have everything ready for you there. It willbe dark in half an hour. I hear the prison bell ringing for the return ofthe prisoners who are out, but the roll-call is not made until all havereturned to their cells and are locked up for the night, which will not befor an hour and a half, so you have plenty of time."
"I thank you with all my heart, mademoiselle."
He went up with her to the attic and looked out at the wall. The lane wasonly some twelve feet across, and he was convinced that he could leap itwithout difficulty. He emptied his box and repacked it, selecting chieflyarticles which would take up the smallest amount of room. He made quitesure how he could best climb from the window to the roof above it, then hewaited with what patience he could until it was absolutely dark. When hewas ready to start he fastened the rope firmly round the box and saidgood-bye to Marie.
His last words were: "I will do my very best for Lucien, and when the waris over I will send you a gold watch to wear at your wedding."
Then he got upon the window-sill, with the end of the rope tied round hiswaist, and with some little difficulty climbed to the roof of the house,and when he had got his breath began to pull at the rope and hoisted upthe box. He had, before starting, put on the disguise Marie had bought forhim, and handed her the remains of his uniform, telling her to burn it atonce, and to hide away the buttons for the present, and throw them awaythe first time she left the town. "There will be a strict search," hesaid, "for any signs of me, and those buttons would certainly betray youif they were found."
When he got the box up he listened attentively for a little, and as, tohis great joy, he could not hear the footsteps of a sentinel, he threw iton to the wall and jumped after it. He landed on his feet, and, picking upthe box, ran along the wall till he came to a gun. He tied the end of therope round this and slipped down. Then without a moment's delay he slungthe box over his shoulder and walked away. He had two or three outworks topass, but luckily there were no guards, so he made his way through themwithout difficulty. All night he tramped on, and by morning was fortymiles away from Verdun. He did not want to begin to ply his assumed tradetill he was still farther away, so he lay down to sleep in a large wood.He had saved from his rations during the week a certain amount of bread,and he had bought a couple of loaves while wandering with his waresthrough the town. He slept for the best part of the day, and started againat night. Beyond making sure that he was going west he paid but littleattention to the roads he followed, but, keeping steadily in thatdirection, he put another forty miles between him and Verdun by thefollowing morning. Then after a few hours' sleep he boldly went into avillage and entered an inn.
"You are a pedlar," the landlord said, "are you not?"
"Yes," he said, "I am selling wares manufactured by the prisoners atVerdun."
The news spread and the villagers flocked in to look at these curiosities.
"I bought them at a low price, and will sell at the same. They could notbe made by ordinary labour at ten times the price I charge for them."
The bait took, and soon a good many small articles were sold. Two hourslater he again started on his way.