ran the
gantlet of the British cruisers in the narrow part of the channel,
they were now well down the coast of France, and the fog reduced their
chances of being seen by an enemy to a minimum.

"Where about are we?" Ralph asked.

"We are somewhere off the mouth of the Seine, and I guess some fifteen
miles from land."

"Oh, we are working down the channel then," Ralph said. "And where are
we going to?"

"Ah! that question is for the captain to answer if he chooses,"
Jacques said.

"Are we going to touch at the next French port?" Ralph asked
anxiously.

"Not that I know of, unless we have the luck to pick up one of your
merchantmen, and we might then escort her into port. But unless we do
that we do not touch anywhere, luckily for you; because, after all, it
is a good deal pleasanter cruising in the Belle Marie than kicking
your heels inside a prison. I know pretty well, for I was for four
years a prisoner in your English town of Dorchester. That is how I
came to speak your language. It was a weary time of it; though we were
not badly treated, not half so bad as I have heard that the men in
some other prisons were. So I owe you English no ill-will on that
account, and from what I have heard some of our prisons are worse than
any of yours. I used to knit stockings and wraps for the neck. My old
mother taught me when I was a boy. And as we were allowed to sell the
things we made I got on pretty comfortable. Beside, what's the use of
making yourself unhappy? I had neither wife nor children to be
fretting about me at home, so I kept up my spirits."

"How did you get back?" Ralph asked. "Were you exchanged?"

"No," Jacques answered. "I might have waited long enough before that.
I can't make out myself why the two governments don't agree to
exchange prisoners more quickly. I suppose they take about an equal
number. Your men-of-war ships capture more prisoners than ours, but we
make up for it by the numbers our privateers bring in. At any rate
they might exchange as many as they can, say once in six months. One
would have thought they would be glad to do so so as to save
themselves the trouble and expense of looking after and feeding such a
number of useless mouths. Governments always have curious ways."

"But how did you get away from prison?" Ralph asked.

"It was a woman," the man replied. "It is always women who help men
out of scrapes. It was the wife of one of the jailers. She used to
bring her husband's di