“I hope, my lord,” said Clements, “you will not think of taking away the mate and the black.  They are both first-rate men, and both well affected to his Majesty’s service.  The negro was of great use aloft, during the late action, while the mate fought at a gun, like a tiger, for the better part of an hour.  We are somewhat short of hands, and I have counted on inducing both these men to enter.  There is the prize-money for the Frenchman under our lee, you know, my lord; and I have little doubt of succeeding.”

“I’m sorry duty compels me to take all three, Clements, but I’ll bear what you say in mind; perhaps we can get them to enter on board the Speedy.  You know it—­”

Here Mr. Clements discovered that the door was not shut, and he closed it tight, preventing my hearing any more.  I now turned to Marble, whose countenance betrayed the self-reproach he endured, at ascertaining the injury he had done, by his ill-judged artifice.  I made no reproaches, however, but squeezed his hand in token of my forgiveness.  The poor fellow, I plainly saw, had great difficulty in forgiving himself; though he said nothing at the moment.

The conference between Lord Harry Dermond and Mr. Clements, lasted half an hour.  At the end of that time, both appeared in the forward cabin, and I saw by the countenance of the last, that he had failed in his object.  As for us, we were transferred, with the few articles we possessed, to the Speedy, on board which ship our arrival made as much of a sensation as the discipline of a man-of-war would permit.  I was put in irons, the moment we reached the quarter-deck, and placed under the charge of a sentinel near the cabin-door.  Some little attention was paid to my comfort, it is true, and a canvass screen was fitted for me, behind which I ate and slept, with some sort of retirement.  My irons were of so large a sort, that I found means to take them off, and to put them on, at pleasure.  I was disposed to think that the officers were aware of the fact, and that the things were used as much for the sake of appearance as for anything else.  Apart from the confinement, and the injury done my affairs, I had no especial causes of complaint, though this imprisonment lasted until the month of April 1804, or quite five months.  During this time, the Speedy arrived as far south as the line; then she hovered about the Canaries and the Azores, on her way homeward, looking in vain for another Frenchman.  I was permitted to take exercise, twice a day, once in the gangway, and once on the gun-deck, and my table was actually supplied from the cabin.  On no head, had I any other cause to complain, than the fact that my ship had been wrongfully seized in the first place, and that I was now suffering imprisonment for a crime—­if crime indeed it would have been—­that I certainly had not been obliged to commit.