Now, it must be observed, that a great revolution had taken place in the corporal’s feelings since the horror and sufferings of the night.  He felt hatred towards Vanslyperken, and good-will towards those whom he had treated unkindly.  The supernatural appearance of Smallbones, in which he still believed, and which appeared to him as a warning—­what he had suffered from cold and exhaustion, which by him was considered as a punishment for his treatment of the poor lad but the morning before, had changed the heart of Corporal Van Spitter, so he replied in Dutch,

“He will give you nothing, good people, not even a glass of schnappes, I tell you candidly—­so keep the boat if you wish—­I will not say a word about it, except that it is lost.  He is not likely to see it again.  Besides, you can alter it, and paint it.”

This very generous present of his Majesty’s property by the corporal, was very agreeable to the fishermen, as it amply repaid them for all their trouble.  The corporal put on his clothes, and ate a hearty meal, was freely supplied with spirits, and went to bed quite recovered.  The next morning, the fishermen took him down to Amsterdam in their own boat, when Van Spitter discovered that the Yungfrau had sailed; this was very puzzling, and Corporal Van Spitter did not know what to do.  After some cogitation, it occurred to him that, for Vanslyperken’s sake, he might be well received at the Lust Haus by widow Vandersloosh, little imagining how much at a discount was his lieutenant in that quarter.

To the Frau Vandersloosh accordingly he repaired, and the first person he met was Babette, who finding that the corporal was a Dutchman, and belonging to the Yungfrau, and who presumed that he had always felt the same ill-will towards Vanslyperken and Snarleyyow, as did the rest of the ship’s company, immediately entered into a narrative of the conduct of Snarleyyow on the preceding night, the anger of her mistress, and every other circumstance with which the reader is already acquainted.  Corporal Van Spitter thus fortunately found out how matters stood previous to his introduction to the widow.  He expatiated upon his sufferings, upon the indifference of his lieutenant in sailing as to what had become of him, and fully persuaded Babette not only that he was inimical, which now certainly he was, but that he always had been so, to Mr Vanslyperken.  Babette, who was always ready to retail news, went up to the widow, and amused her, as she dressed her, with the corporal’s adventures, and the widow felt an interest in, before she had seen, Corporal Van Spitter, from the account of his “moving accidents by flood and field.”