“The General Paoli, sir:  a fresh-complexioned man and fairer-skinned than any Corsican we had met on our travels; tall, too, and upstanding; dressed in green-and-gold, with black spatter-dashes, and looking at one with an eye like a hawk’s.  Compliments fly when gentlefolks meet.  Though as yet I didn’t know him from Adam, ’twas easy to mark him for a person of quality by the way he lifted his hat and bowed.  Sir John bowed back, though more stiffly; and the more compliments the General paid him, the stiffer he grew and the shorter his answers, till by-and-by he said in English, ’I think you know a little of my language, sir:  enough, at any rate, to take my meaning?’

“The General bowed again at this, still keeping his smile.  ’You do not wish my men to overhear?  Yes, yes, I speak the English—­ a very little—­and can understand it, if you will be so good as to speak slowly.’

“‘Very well, then, sir,’ said Sir John; ’if I and my man here have been of some small service to you to-day I reckon myself happy to have obliged so noble a patriot as Signor Pascal Paoli.’  And here they both bowed again.  ’But I must warn you, sir, that my service here is due only to the Queen Emilia, whom you also should serve, and whom I am sworn to seek and save.  The Genoese have shut her, I believe, in Nonza, in Cape Corso.’

“The General frowned a bit at this, but in a moment smiled at him in an open way that was honest too, as any one could see.  ’I have later news of the Queen Emilia,’ said he; ’which is that the Genoese have removed her to the island of Giraglia, off Cape Corso.  I fear, sir, you will not reach her this side of Doomsday.’

“‘I will reach her or die,’ said Sir John, stoutly.

“The General took a glance at the Genoese gunboats.  ’At present it is hopeless,’ said he; ’but I tell you, as man to man, that in two months I hope to clear the sea of those gentry yonder.  Meantime, if you will press on to Cape Corso, and, without listening to reason, I’ll beg you to accept a pass from me which will save trouble if you fall in, as you will, with my militia.  It’s small enough thanks,’ said he, ‘for the service you have done us this day.’

“Those were the General’s words, sirs, as I heard them and got them by heart.  And Sir John took the pass from him, scribbled there and then on the fly-leaf of the General’s pocket Bible, and put it carefully between the leaves of his own:  and so, having led us back along the track by which he and his men had come, the General pointed out our way to us and bade us farewell in the Lord’s name.  He saw that my master wanted no thanks, and a gentleman (as they say) would rather be unmannerly than troublesome.