bounds of enthusiasm; he formally
offered the Gascon a situation for life on board ship if the chevalier
would promise to charm thus agreeably the tedium of the voyages of the
Unicorn.

We would say here, in order to explain the success of Croustillac, that
at sea the hours seem very long; the slightest distractions are
precious, and one is very glad to have always at one's beck and call a
species of buffoon endowed with imperturbable good humor. As to the
chevalier, he hid under a laughing and careless mask, a sad
preoccupation; the end of his journey drew near; the words of Father
Griffen had been too sensible, too sincere, too just not to strongly
impress our adventurer, who had counted upon passing a joyous life at
the expense of the colonists. The coldness with which many of the
passengers, returning to Martinique, treated him, completed the ruin of
his hopes. In spite of the talents which he developed and which amused
them, none of these colonists made the slightest advance to the
chevalier, although he repeatedly declared he would be delighted to make
a long exploration into the interior of the island.

The end of the voyage came; the last illusions of Croustillac were
destroyed; he saw himself reduced to the deplorable alternative of
forever traversing the ocean with Captain Daniel, or of returning to
France to encounter the rigors of the law. Chance suddenly offered to
the chevalier the most dazzling mirage, and awakened in him the maddest
hopes.

The Unicorn was not more than two hundred leagues from Martinique when
they met a French trading vessel coming from that island and sailing
for France. This vessel lay to and sent a boat to the Unicorn for news
from Europe. In the colonies all was well for some weeks past; not a
single English man-of-war had been seen. After exchanging other news,
the two vessels separated.

"For a vessel of such value (the passengers had estimated her worth at
about four hundred thousand francs) she is not very well armed," said
the chevalier, "and would be a good prize for the English."

"Bah!" returned a passenger with an envious air, "Blue Beard can afford
to lose such a vessel as that."

"Yes, truly; there would still remain enough money to buy and arm
others."

"Twenty such, if she desired," said the captain.

"Oh, twenty, that is a good many," said another.

"Faith, without counting her magnificent plantation at Anse aux Sables,
and her mysterious house at Devil's C