shed themselves with a fresh relay to operate upon their
backs.

"Queer, isn't it, uncle? I am quite dry in front. My word, how the
rain did come down!"

"Messieurs will dine here?" said one of the waiters smilingly.

"_Oh, oui, pour certain_" replied Uncle Paul. "If you don't mind,
Pickle."

"Mind, uncle? Oh, yes, of course. I am horribly hungry."

"You always are, my boy. Well, we must make the best of a bad
business," continued the doctor, as, nodding to the waiter, he moved a
little closer to the fire and turned his back, an example followed by
Rodd.

"It makes a dreadful time, monsieur," said the smiling waiter. "Will he
choose, or trust his servant to prepare a dinner upon the field of which
the English milor' will be proud?"

"You speak capital English," said the doctor, rather sarcastically.

"I have been many times in public in London."

"Ah, that's right. Then give us a snug little dinner while we dry
ourselves. But what's the meaning of all that upset at the barracks
next door?"

"It is not quite that I know, sir," said the man eagerly; "but two
officers came in upon the instant to put their cloaks where they should
not water themselves so much, and I hear them say, a dispatch come
quickly for monsieur the Governor to seize upon a ship. Oh, faith of a
man! Hark at that!"

For there was a sudden crash and an echoing roar, while some of the
utensils in the great kitchen clattered together, and a piece of
earthenware fell from a shelf upon the stone floor, to be shivered to
atoms.

"_Tonnerre, eh_?" said the doctor.

"_Non, non, monsieur_" cried the man, relapsing into his native tongue
for a moment. "It is what you English gentlemen call a great gun from
the fort; and look, look! The poor _cuisiniere_ much alarm, as you call
it."

For just then, as if catching the contagion from the shrieking of the
storm, one of the cook-maids threw herself back into a chair and began
to scream.

It was a busy scene for a few minutes while the frightened hysterical
woman was hurried out, while with the storm seeming to increase in
violence, and amid the trampling of armed men outside, who were hurrying
from the barracks, the two English visitors gradually picked up scraps
of information which explained the excitement that in spite of the storm
was going on outside.

"Messieurs would like to see," said the friendly waiter. "They will
come up-stairs to the long _salle_ whose windows give upon