the harbour."

"But what's the matter?" cried Rodd. "Is there a wreck?"

"A wreck, sare?" said the waiter, shaking his head. "No, I know not
wreck."

"Has a ship come ashore and is breaking up?"

"Ha, ha! No, no, no, no, no, no, no! You would say _naufrage. Non,
non, non_! It is a sheep in the harbour; a foreign spy. They say it
has come to set fire to the town."

"Then they have chosen a very bad night for it," said Uncle Paul,
laughing.

"Monsieur is right. Nosing would burn. But the enemies of la France,
my great country, not stop to think of zat."

"Oh, but that must be a rumour, Rodd," said Uncle Paul uneasily. "Why,
surely they are not going to fancy that our English schooner is a spy
and an enemy!"

The waiter's ears were sharp, and he cried at once--

"English! Oh non, monsieur. You are from the little two-mast. It is
not you. It is some enemy of the King whose sheep is in the harbour,
and great dispatches have come to the Governor that she is to be seized.
Ah, there again, monsieur! Anozzer gun from the fort."

It was plain enough to hear, for the windows of the big badly-lit room
into which the man had conducted them clattered in their frames, while
the dull, heavy report was preceded by a vivid flash as of lightning.

"Ha, ha! You see. The sheep will not get away, for at the forts they
are alert and will sink her if she try."

"Oh, but no vessel could try to put out in a storm like this, Rodd,"
said Uncle Paul.

"No, sare," continued the waiter excitedly; "the boats will go out with
the soldiers and take the sheep."

"She is a man-of-war, I suppose?"

"Yes, sare. Not very big, but an enemy; but if she fight they will
shoot from all the forts and sink her."

"But how do you know all this?" said Rodd.

"Many soldiers, horsemen, came galloping up to bring dispatches to the
Governor. There, sare; you will look from the window," continued the
man, using a clean serviette that he took from under his arm to rub the
steamy window-panes, for the cold blast of the storm had caused the warm
air inside to blur the glass with a thick deposit of vapour. "There,
sare," continued the man; "zat is ze sheep."

"Oh, it's too thick to see for the rain."

"Yes, sare; but you see out zare in ze arbour ze two lights."

"Nonsense man!" cried Uncle Paul, half angrily. "That is the English
schooner--ours."

"Oh, non, non, non, monsieur! Away to ze _gauche_--ze left hand. Ze
sheep wit