“Well, when he came down to you this morning he was hoping to have made terms with you, by which he, and those of his mind, could have returned to the service of their Majesties, and kept us in safety until they were strengthened by the forces from the ships. But since you would grant no terms, and he had no mercy to hope from those of the King’s party to whom he was well known as the most daring of the gunboat officers, he had to save himself and his comrades by marching out before you came in.”
“My dear young lady, in the time of war we can only deal with general rules, and not particular instances. I am convinced that our great Admiral is right in proclaiming no terms for the Jacobins, or in this land of liars there would not be a rebel to hang in all Naples.”
“He is no Jacobin,” she said hotly. “I have had many conversations with him since I have been his prisoner.” (She had her Italian from Will’s mother, which accounted partly for another circumstance.)
“In any case,” said her father, “he treated us with the utmost consideration. We were his guests rather than his prisoners, though indeed we were safer as the latter. He even concealed from his men my rank in His Majesty’s service, which he had had from my daughter in conversation, fearing that he might not be able to protect a British Admiral, though it came near to being worse that I was an English lord. For on the approach of Admiral Lord Nelson and his fleet, when it became certain that the city must fall, the common sort among his men, who are pure brigands, announced their intention of carrying us off to the mountains, and on the pain of death to me (which would doubtless have been suggested by a present of my cars) and selling my daughter to the French, extracting a great ransom. To cut a long story short, and knowing the unbending character of yourself and Nelson, we had many conversations through my daughter, and the best that could be done for us seemed to be that he should come to you as he came, and in the event of failure should, after warning you to take possession in the shortest possible time, lock us up in the store-room where you found us, pass the key in through the window, and endeavour to frighten the baser sort of his men into flying with him, without thought of us. But he warned us, in case of accidents, not to attempt to let ourselves out until we heard the voices of the English force, and then to show a white handkerchief and parley.”
“So ho!” ejaculated the Captain.
“Our precautions nearly cost us our liberty. The Count had become extremely attached to my daughter, and she was in such peril when these heavy guns of yours began to play on this old cockleshell—though I must say she stood fire like a man while it was being knocked to pieces over our heads—that he begged you not to fire while he was evacuating. This encouraged the brigands to steal back again as soon as they had evacuated, and search the fort. Fortunately for us they were some time in finding us, and the door was very strong.”
“You have forgotten, father, that he gave you back your sword and one of his two pistols before he locked us up.”
“Yes, that he did: a pistol for Kitty to use on them or herself, and my sword that I might end as most of us Fleets have ended; and, egad! I am glad that we were captured to know what a daughter I have, for it has been a bitter thing to me that the last of the Fleets should be a woman. But the way she stood the cannonade, even that did not come up to her conduct in the store-room. As soon as they found us out and began their assault on the door, leaping on a barrel she flew her white flag at the window. They yelled out their ‘Buono! buono!’ and bade us open. We took no notice, and they became furious; and then first one and then another fired at the flag she was holding. None of the balls hit her, though she had some nasty cuts from stone splinters; but the fire became so hot that she had to tie the handkerchief to the bars, which she did without further hurt, though they fired at her all the time she was tying it. And then you came.”
“Madam,” said our famous Captain Troubridge, unbuckling his sword-belt, “I hope I may be permitted”; and with that he advanced to her and presented his sword.
Katherine blushed with pleasure, and found a happy way out of her embarrassment by passing the belt twice round her own waist and getting the buckle to meet; while Captain Troubridge put on the cutlass of one of our men, the only one who had been hurt in the short mêlée.