It was then broad daylight, though the fog still covered the whole surface of the sea. In the course he was steering, Captain O’Loughlin did not again expect to see his late antagonist, from whom he considered he had a most fortunate escape, as she appeared full of men. He was then walking the deck with Lieutenant Pole, when the seaman who had leaped on board came upon the quarter-deck attended by the quarter-master.
“This is the young man, sir,” said the latter, touching his hat; “he refuses to give any explanation except to the captain of the ship.”
O’Loughlin looked at the stranger. He was a tall, slight, handsome young man, of about two or three and twenty; his complexion evidently tanned by a southern climate. There was a manly, independent manner in his bearing and look as he stood calmly facing the commander of the Onyx.
“Well, sir,” said Captain O’Loughlin, “what have you to say for yourself? Were you a prisoner on board that ship—but, first of all, what was her name?”
“The frigate Prudente, forty guns, and three hundred men,” replied the young man.
“The deuce it was!” cried Captain O’Loughlin; “then we had a fortunate escape. Pray what were you doing on board?”
“Waiting,” returned the young man, in a somewhat hasty tone, “for an opportunity to get away. Sir,” he continued, advancing a step or two, and with a flush on his cheek, “my story is too long to tell you here; I am an Englishman and a gentleman; my name is Julian Arden, and—”
“What! Be the powers of war!” exclaimed O’Loughlin, springing forward, and catching the surprised young man by the hand; “Julian Arden! the lost brother of Mabel, and the son of the Duchesse de Coulancourt?”
“Oh, sir!” exclaimed the young man, trembling with emotion, and clasping the captain’s hand with a grasp of intense feeling; “who are you, who greet my ear with names engraved upon my heart—never forgotten through years of suffering and degradation?” Julian Arden paused; his eyes were filled with tears, and his voice failed him from agitation.
Patrick O’Loughlin wrung the young man’s hand, almost equally affected; but, taking him by the arm, whilst Charles Pole and the quarter-master Brown stood considerably surprised, he said—