"Aren't you? Why not? What is the matter with papa?"
"Nothing is the matter with him, so far as health is concerned. Only, he is not free and I am not free. We are both prisoners."
Roy's large grey eyes grew bigger and rounder.
"Den! Why—Den—what can you mean? Prisoners! You and papa prisoners! Why, you haven't been fighting."
"No, we have not been fighting. We ought not to be prisoners. Such a thing has never happened before, in any war between civilised countries. But war has been declared, as you know was expected before you were taken ill. And one of the first things that Napoleon did, directly war broke out, was to make all English travellers prisoners of war."
Roy clenched his fist.
"He professes to have had provocation. There were French vessels in our ports, and these were seized, as soon as our Ambassador had been ordered to return home. But that was in accordance with a very old custom—centuries old. Napoleon's act of reprisal is altogether new. It is a thing unheard of—making war on travellers and peaceful residents; a disgrace to himself and his nation. You know what is meant by 'reprisals' in war. This is his 'reprisal' for the vessels seized. Every Englishman in France, or in any country under Napoleon's sway at this moment, is declared to be a prisoner."
"Then I'm a prisoner too."
"You are under age. Some boys of your age have been arrested, I believe, but only because they hold His Majesty's Commission in the Navy. Otherwise, under eighteen you are free."
"But you are not in prison."