Carteret, who though ambitious and covetous, was never wanting in courage, energy, intelligence or versatility, turned the more obstinately to his task.  Concealing his natural anxieties, he rode about from post to post in morion and buff coat, wearing a resolute countenance, and doing all that one man could do to keep up the hearts of his people and prepare a stout defence.

The position of Le Gallais, though humbler, was much more complicated.  Nor was he possessed of sufficient strength of character to choose a distinct path and steadily pursue it.  Determined enough, as we have seen, under excitement he could fight with his back to the wall.  Nor was he one to shrink from any duty that was plainly pointed out to him.  He could not prepare himself de longue main for a definite and consistent conduct; still less had he the power—­often wielded by natures otherwise inferior—­of striking a balance between opposing motives.  His duty as a militia-officer was at complete variance with his desires as a friend of Lempriere’s.  He could not choose between them.  He might have thrown up his commission and devoted himself to watching over his friends at King’s Cliff.  He might have cast his feelings to the winds and accepted the post of orderly officer to the Lieutenant-Governor which was offered him by Carteret.  He chose neither line but adopted what he called “a middle-course,” in other words left himself to be drifted on the current of events.  He saw that the position of the cavaliers was hopeless if they had to maintain a long and unaided contest against the conquerors of Ireland and Scotland.  He had no great trust in the willingness of the French, none whatever in their good faith.  His ardent desire to prevent effusion of Jersey blood was a preoccupation that hid almost all other considerations from his mind.  And he had trust in the discipline and morale of the Parliamentary troops, and in the presence among them of Prynne and Lempriere, which saved him from much anxiety as to the welfare of the ladies at King’s Cliff.

As he sate, that night, by the camp-fire of a picquet of his company he heard two militiamen conversing, and recognised Benoist and Le Gros as the speakers.

“To what purpose are we here, mon voisin?” asked the former.  “What good would the sacrifice of ourselves do the King now, when perhaps he has already undergone his father’s fate and is no longer in this world?”

“If the King be dead, indeed,” answered Le Gros, “I for one will not fire a single cartridge.  All the same, he was a debonair prince, and once gave me a groat to drink his health when he saw me holding his horse.”

“That he is a prisoner is certain,” croaked Benoist.  “And if prisoner to Maitre Cromouailles he can only make his escape through one door.  And that door does not lead to Jersey, though it may to Paradise.”