"We will take charge of them."
The master and mate with fifteen men were at once sent on board the prize. Harding with his crew returned to the schooner, and ten more men from the frigate were sent on board her. Then the Alert dipped her ensign and laid her course west; while the frigate, escorting the prize, headed south-west, as the captain intended to see her well past the French coast before he left her; for although no French men-of-war had, so far as he had learned, put out from Toulon, it was certain that French privateers would very soon be fitted out to prey upon British commerce. The breeze had sprung up again, and the schooner, slipping fast through the water, soon drew away from the others. A large ship was seen coming out from Toulon, but the Alert, sailing much faster, soon lost sight of her. Four days later, returning from the westward, the Alert, rounding a headland, came in sight of the château. Peter uttered an exclamation as his eye fell upon her, and he caught up the glass.
"Good Heavens, Harding, the château is on fire, there is smoke pouring out of two of the lower windows, and—Yes, I can make out a white sheet or something outside the window where the signal was to be shown. I am afraid the château is in the hands of those ruffians of Marseilles. No doubt, directly they were seen coming the girls hung it out, though they would know that we should not be along here until eleven o'clock. Probably the place was taken some hours ago. You may be sure that the scoundrels would not set it on fire until they had sacked it from top to bottom. The only chance is that they may be hiding somewhere near the shore."
He threw the schooner up into the wind, and for an hour she lay there while the two midshipmen examined every stone and tree near the water through their glasses, but without seeing the slightest sign of any one hiding there.
"It is no use waiting any longer," Peter said at last. "If they had escaped before the place was taken they would have been here long ago, and would, of course, have signalled as soon as they saw us. We will make straight out to sea for the present, we can do nothing until it gets dark. I don't know, though. Put her head to the west again; I must go and see what is going on up there, and must run the risk of being caught. There is a battery in the next bay, and two or three villages farther on, so I must go at once. Get a boat down with four hands in it, while I run down and put on that fishing suit again. As soon as you pick the boat up make out to sea, and be here again at seven. Don't send the boat ashore unless you see me come down to the water's edge. If I am not there, stand off again, and come back two hours later; I may be detained. If I am not there then, come back at ten o'clock and send a boat in. Unless I come off then, you will know that I have got into some sort of mess. Cruise along as usual, and don't come back till evening the day after to-morrow. Then if I am not there, you had better find the Tartar, tell the captain that I went on shore to see if I could get my friends out of the hands of these scoundrels, and that as I have not returned I must certainly have been taken prisoner."
He ran down below and hastily put on his disguise, hid two brace of pistols under the blouse, and went up again. The boat was already alongside. Harding was examining the shore with his glass.
"I don't see a soul moving, sir."
"Throw her up into the wind at once; if you go any farther they will make us out from the fort beyond the headland."
The sailors were armed with pistols and cutlasses. "Now, lads, take me ashore as quickly as you can, so that I can get well into the wood before any one who happens to see the boat come off can get there."
The sailors rowed at racing speed to the shore. All was still quiet. Peter jumped on to the beach, bidding the men row back as fast as they could; then he started at a quick run through the wood. When he approached the château he saw a crowd of some four or five hundred men in front of him. All were armed, some with muskets, others with pikes, while some carried swords. Casks of wine had been brought up from the cellars, and half-a-dozen of these had been broached, and the men were gathered thickly round them.