I asked his advice as to our movements and conduct, now that we were out on parole.
"I would advise" said he, "that you live here as quietly as you can, at least for the present. The indications are that the war will not last much longer; our government and people are getting tired of it, thanks to the depredations of your privateers upon our commerce. We have learned that American sailors can fight just as well as British ones; and no man of sense in England disparages your navy at the present time, as he was likely to do before the war broke out. The British loss of merchantmen, of all classes, is fully twenty-three hundred, while the American loss does not exceed five hundred. Fifty-six British war vessels have been captured, with eight hundred and eighty cannon; while twenty-five American war vessels with three hundred and fifty guns have been taken by us. The game is a losing one to the British side, and negotiations for peace are now going on!"
"And the sooner we have it the better for all concerned," I replied. "No one will hail it more warmly than I shall."
"For one, I shall be very glad of it," said Mrs. Graham, "as I don't like to be obliged to regard you and Mr. Haines as enemies."
"Nor we ain't no enemies, neither, Mrs. Graham," replied Haines, with more self-possession than I had seen him display during the entire evening; "if our countries are clawin' at each other 'tain't no reason why we should fight!"
A few minutes later we took our leave. Next day we visited a tailor, and procured clothing that was not likely to be remarked as foreign garb, and from that time on we lived very quietly. I was a frequent, almost a daily, visitor at the house of the Grahams; dined and took tea with them quite often; walked out occasionally with the two girls; and spent many an hour in their charming little parlor. Mrs. Graham suggested that I ought to write the story of my adventures to pass away the time; and it was by her prompting that I devoted my forenoons to putting on paper the narrative which is rapidly coming to an end.
Haines amused himself by taking short strolls around Portsmouth and its suburbs of Southsea and Portsea; but he was very cautious about his movements, lest he might be impressed, and taken to serve on one of his Majesty's ships. On his account I ransacked an old book-store, and bought a supply of sea stories and other reading matter, with which he whiled away a good many hours. He never ventured out at night, but haunted the smoking-room of our lodging-house, where he was a general favorite on account of his facility at spinning yarns, of which the majority were of other material than the pure, unadulterated wool of truth.
One morning he went out for his usual promenade, leaving me busy in my room with my writing. He came back fully an hour before his accustomed time, rushing into my room, very red in the face, and puffing considerably from having walked with much more than ordinary rapidity. He dropped into a chair, ejaculating as he did so,—
"Shiver my timbers, Captain, but there's big news!"
"What is it?" I asked, as I ceased writing and placed my pen on the table.