ty miles distant, and it would be
necessary to send over an express, so that a sufficient force might be
dispatched to Lanion to escort the prisoners there. This Mr Mayor
undertook to do immediately; a boy was summoned to take over the
communication, and the mayor went up to write his letter to the
authorities, while the wounded men were carried away, and by the
direction of the cure, who had just arrived and joined the consultation,
billeted upon different houses in the town. The express having been
dispatched, and the wounded safely housed and under the care of the
village Aesculapius, who never had such a job in his whole life, the
next point of consultation was how to dispose of the prisoners until the
force should arrive from Morlaix. Here the sergeant became the
principal person, being military commandant: forty-seven prisoners were
a heavy charge for twelve invalids; and as for the privateer's men,
there was no dependence upon them, for, as the captain said, they had
had enough to do to take them, and it was the business of the
authorities to look after them now, while the privateer's men made
merry.

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

WITH THOSE POWERFUL AGENTS, FIRE AND WATER, WE CONTRIVE TO ESCAPE FROM A
FRENCH PRISON.

After more than an hour of confusion and loud talking it was at last
proposed and agreed to, _nem con_, that the prisoners should be confined
in the old church; the twelve invalids to be divided into two parties,
who were to be sentinels over them, relieving each other every four
hours. The mayor immediately went forward with the village blacksmith
to examine the state of the church doors, and ascertain how they might
be secured--while the prisoners, having been summoned out of the
privateer, were escorted up between two files of the privateer's men
with their swords drawn, and followed by the whole population. As soon
as we arrived at the church door the name of every prisoner was taken
down by the mayor, attended by a notary, and then he was passed into the
church. Bramble and I of course were marched up with the others, the
captain of the privateer talking with us the whole way, through the
young man who interpreted, informing us that an express had been sent
over to Morlaix, to which town we should be escorted the next day, and
then have better accommodation. As we stood at the huge doors of the
church, which were opened for our reception, we perceived that the altar
and all the decoration