Jodoque did not instantly rush forward to re-arrest this prisoner; but it struck him there must be a reward for the recapture; so, determining upon taking the prisoner and the basket at one fell swoop, he tore away to the burgomaster’s to inform him of the discovery.  He reached the official residence, and drew the pompous little burgomaster to his bedroom-window in a moment.  The burgomaster was rather scandalized that such a respectable man as Jodoque should be out at such an hour; but when he heard the information, he grew considerably cold, and rather wished the French fleet would successfully challenge the place at once, and relieve him of his admirable chance of the halter.

Was ever burgomaster in such a fix?  He wished his ardent longing for that position had been strangled at his birth.  No,—­he had saved his neck from the French, he thought to himself, by conniving at the escape of a French officer the day previous, and now his neck was in danger for having very properly tried to save it on that previous day.

But action, action!  Whatever came of it, he must appear a patriotic burgomaster; so he took his night-cap off, and, in spite of the energetic remonstrances of the burgomaster’s lady, was soon down in the street, surrounded by half a dozen men, and making for Bertha’s eventful little mansion—­

Within which was passing a terrible scene.

The fact is, that, when the false Daniel arrived at the fleet and reported himself, he found that he had escaped with only part of himself, and rather wanted the rest; and as at that time the French navy was allowed a liberty which it has not now, the young officer laid a statement of the whole case before his commander.  That daring personage thus recommended:—­A French boat to start away for shore with this young officer, and several more in her; that it should touch near Bertha’s house; that Bertha should receive the merest hint, and then take passage for the French fleet herself.

The French officer, attended by half-a-dozen more youths, came back to the shore, and, just as day was peeping, came up to the little right-hand window; and as no one answered his tap, he raised the sash and jumped lightly in.

This Jodoque saw and reported to the burgomaster; but he could not tell the remainder.

For Daniel, waked by the tapping on the window-pane, saw who it was, and believing that he had come to steal his wife from him, he clenched his fists, and, as the slim young man jumped down into the room, crushed him almost dead in his strong arms.

“Not a word, or I’ll stifle you!”

“Daniel!  Daniel!”

“Not a word,—­and don’t Daniel me, you thief!”

“Thief?”

“Don’t speak loud.”

“How thief?”

“You would steal my wife from me.”

“How your wife?”

“Why, Bertha;—­she promised to marry me six long years ago, and she would have married me, if you had not come and stolen her heart.”