Employment, of whatever kind, was exactly the tonic needed by the child at the moment. He picked up the nearly empty basket of food and followed the émigré, who carried the water-keg and the compass. The sea whispered up the side of the rock, lifting the seaweed. "Be very careful," adjured La Vireville over his shoulder. "Here we are. I expect you have never been in a cave before?"
Only just above high-water mark, of a slit-like entrance so narrow that La Vireville, stooping, could only just squeeze through, and with even this entrance partly screened by a projecting rock, the cave opened out within to respectable proportions. The Chevalier de la Vireville had not, in fact, been guided, in his choice of a landing-place, entirely by the fact of his mishap, which made an immediate haven a necessity, nor by the knowledge that the soldiers on the cliff might very possibly come along in pursuit. The thought of this very spot had visited his mind once or twice earlier on the voyage.
Anne hesitated a moment, rather daunted by the darkness, so La Vireville set down his burdens and took him by the hand.
"It will soon get lighter," he said cheerfully. "Come and sit down by me." He disposed his own long legs with some haste upon the sandy floor, for his head was swimming so much that he feared to fall.
Anne came willingly enough and nestled up to him. "We are quite safe now, are we not, M. le Chevalier?"
"Quite," said Fortuné, with his arm round him. "And I think the best thing we could do would be to go to sleep, don't you, nephew?"
"I am in effect very sleepy," said Anne, leaning his head against him with a sigh. A moment's silence, and he went on, in a changed voice, as if against his will, "I was frightened . . . there was blood . . . you too, and the fisherman——"
"Of course you were frightened for a moment," interrupted the émigré, holding him tighter. "But listen, my little pigeon, and I will explain it all. The soldiers on the cliff fired at us, as you know, and a bullet hit François the fisherman, and because it hurt him very much, he fainted—you understand? At the same time your uncle got a blow on the head from another bullet, which hit the mast first and then knocked him down. But, you see, he is quite recovered now. In the same way, when François had lain down a little in the bottom of the boat he felt better again, and after you and I had got out of her he was able to sail her back home; for, you know, with this wind and in the daylight we should never have got to Jersey to-day. We shall go at night, when the soldiers can't see us. So you see, mon petit, that there is nothing to be alarmed at now, and as for hearing shots and seeing . . . a little blood . . . you must remember that you too will fight for the King some day!"
"Yes," said the little boy. "Unless I write a big book like Grandpapa."
"Well, whatever you do, you must never let yourself be frightened."