proprietor of the vessel,
acquiring more and more credit, and this position being the most
dangerous of all, I resolved to get out of it. I begged the commandant
of the place, M. Alloy, to come to receive my declaration, and I
announced to him that I was French. To prove to him the truth of my
words, I invited him to send for Pablo Blanco, the sailor in the service
of the corsair who took us, and who had returned from his cruise a short
time before. This was done as I wished. In disembarking, Pablo Blanco,
who had not been warned, exclaimed with surprise: "What! you, Don
Francisco, mixed up with all these miscreants!" The sailor gave the
Governor circumstantial evidence as to the mission which I fulfilled
with two Spanish commissaries. My nationality thus became proved.

That same day Alloy was replaced in the command of the fortress by the
Irish Colonel of the Ultonian regiment; the corsair left for a fresh
cruise, taking away Pablo Blanco; and I became once more the roving
merchant from Schwekat.

From the windmill, where we underwent our quarantine, I could see the
tricoloured flag flying on the fortress of Figueras. The reconnoitring
parties of the cavalry came sometimes within five or six hundred metres;
it would not then have been difficult for me to escape. However, as the
regulations against those who violate the sanitary laws are very
rigorous in Spain, as they pronounce the penalty of death against him
who infringes them, I only determined to make my escape on the eve of
our admission to pratique.

The night being come I crept on all-fours along the briars, and I should
soon have got beyond the line of sentinels who guarded us. A noisy
uproar which I heard among the Moors made me determine to reenter, and I
found these poor people in an unspeakable state of uneasiness, thinking
themselves lost if I left; I therefore remained.

The next day a strong picquet of troops presented itself before the
mill. The manoeuvres made by it inspired all of us with anxiety, but
especially Captain Krog.[3] "What will they do with us?" he exclaimed.
"Alas! you will see only too soon," replied the Spanish officer. This
answer made every one believe that they were going to shoot us. What
might have strengthened me in this idea was the obstinacy with which
Captain Krog and two other individuals of small size hid themselves
behind me. A handling of arms made us think that we had but a few
seconds to live.

In analyzing the fee