When he reached the deck, Emanuel asked the officer of the watch for his friend who had accompanied him on board, but was informed he had been detained by Captain Paul to sup with him, and that being anxious to oblige the count, he had placed his boat as his disposal.
She was waiting alongside the ship, and the sailors were in readiness to accompany him. Emanuel had scarcely got into her when they rowed him away with a rapidity equal to that with which they had conducted him on board. But this time she proceeded in sorrowful silence, for the young lieutenant was no longer there to animate the count with his practical philosophy.
That same night the prisoner was conducted on board the Indienne, and the next morning at day-break the inquisitive inhabitants of the coast no longer discerned the frigate which had given rise to so many conjectures, and whose unexpected arrival, her remaining there without any apparent object, and her spontaneous departure, remained an inexplicable mystery to the inhabitants of Fort Louis.
CHAPTER III.—THE SEA FIGHT.
The gallant vessels side by side did lie,
Yard-arm and yard-arm, and the murd’rous guns
Belch’d forth their flame and shot, ‘till the white decks
Ran like a sea with blood. Uncertain still
The victory stood, ‘till Perry, waving
His bright sword o’er his head, cried, “Follow me!”
A hundred shouts responded to this call,
Then with one spring he bounded on the deck
Of his determined foe.—Oxd Play.
As the motives which had induced Captain Paul to visit the coast of Brittany had no relation with our history, excepting as far as regards the events which we have related, we shall leave our readers in the same state of uncertainty as were the inhabitants of Fort Louis; and although our’ vocation and our sympathies naturally incline us to terra-firma, we must follow our hero for a few days in his adventurous course upon the ocean. The weather was as beautiful as it generally is on the western coast of France, at the commencement of autumn. The Indienne sailed gaily on with as fair a wind as could blow for her. The ship’s crew, excepting those actually employed in manoeuvring the vessel, were availing themselves of the fine weather and occupied in their own matters, as caprice directed them, or were idly lounging about the ship, when all at once a voice which appeared to descend from the sky, called out, “Below, there!”
“Hullo, there!” replied the quarter-master, who was standing near the helm.
“Sail, ho!” cried the seaman who was on the lookout, at the head-mast.
“Sail, ho!” repeated the quarter-master. “Officer of the deck, be so good as to inform the captain there is a sail in sight.”