for this port when I first saw them this morning, with
the Annette in hot chase after them. It did not strike me that it
was her, for it was only last night that the news came in that she
had been seen, yesterday, sailing towards Granville; and I thought
that she was the Lionne, which is a boat our own size. I came up
before she had overhauled the boat and, directly the fight began, I
could see the mistake I had made. But as she was a good deal faster
than we were, it was of no use running. There was just a chance
that I might cripple her, and get away."

He then related the incidents of the fight.

"Well, I congratulate you, gentlemen," the officer said, heartily.
"You have indeed done a good turn to Captain Teniers. To whom have
I the pleasure of speaking?"

"My name is O'Connor," replied Terence. "I have the honour to be on
Sir Arthur Wellesley's staff; and have the rank of captain in our
army, but am a colonel in the Portuguese service. This is
Lieutenant Ryan, of His Majesty's Mayo Fusiliers."

The officer looked a little doubtful, while Terence was speaking.
It was difficult to believe that the young fellow, of one or two
and twenty, at the outside, could be a captain on Lord Wellington's
staff--for Sir Arthur had been raised to the peerage, after the
battle of Talavera--still less that he should be a colonel in the
Portuguese service. However, he bowed gravely, and said:

"My name is Major Chalmers, of the 35th. I am adjutant to the
governor. If it will not be inconvenient, I shall be glad if you
will return with me, and report yourselves to him."

"We are quite ready," Terence said. "We have nothing to do in the
way of packing up, for we have only the clothes we stand in; which
were, indeed, the property of the captain of the lugger, who was
killed in the action."

Telling Captain Teniers that they would be coming down again, when
they had seen the governor, the two friends accompanied the
officer. Very few words were said on the way, for the major
entertained strong doubts whether Terence had not been hoaxing him,
and whether the account he had given of himself was not altogether
fictitious. On arriving at the governor's he left them for a few
minutes in the anteroom; while he went in and gave the account he
had received, from the captain, of the manner in which the lugger
had been captured; and said that the two gentlemen who had played
so important a part in the matter were, as they said, one of them