“Monsieur,—
“To relieve the anxiety Mademoiselle Arden must feel concerning her mother, I contrive, though at great risk, to send this to you, having found out that she and you are on board the Babet.
“The Duchess is quite safe and well, I dare not write more, and with the blessing of God we may be in England as soon as your ship. I cannot venture to put more on paper—tell Mademoiselle to keep up her spirits, and all will be well.
“Jean Plessis.”
The overjoyed child threw her arms round Agatha Volney’s neck and burst into tears, exclaiming:
“Oh! dear, dear mamma is safe and well, and that dear good Jean Plessis, how I love him for his faith and devotion!”
Agatha kissed the little girl fondly, which proceeding seemed to affect the worthy Commander of the Babet, who would willingly have offered his service for a similar demonstration on the part of the fair French girl; but the loud report of a cannon roused him from his reverie, and caused him to rush upon deck. William Thornton followed. There had sprung up a fine breeze out of the gulf, and the gun was to call attention to the signals.
“Ah! I thought so,” said Captain O’Loughlin; “the signal to get under weigh. Here’s a glorious breeze. We shall now see what this craft can do, for I have a very good opinion of her; she has fine beam, carries square yards, and has a very clean entrance.”
In a few minutes the boatswain’s whistle called the crew into action; there were but forty-two men, officers included, on board. Although an eighteen-gun corvette, she had at this time only eight twelve-pounder carronades mounted; the rest of the guns were below; and as the Babet was very short handed, and required some considerable repair before fit for actual service in the British navy, Lieutenant O’Loughlin’s directions were to take her to Plymouth, and avoid any encounter with the enemy’s cruisers, if compatible with honour to do so.
It was a dark night when the various vessels sailing in company got under weigh. It was not intended or expected that they should keep together after sailing, the disparity of their size and equipment putting that out of the question. Their restrictive orders were to make the best of their way to an English port, excepting two or three, which were bound to Rochford, to land the Royalist fugitives from Toulon.