interpreter,
stepping forward, hailed the Irishman in Gallic:

"Where do you come from, and where are you bound to? Have you met any
vessels at sea?"

At these questions the Irishman motioned that he did not understand.
Then he began in his own half-Gallic tongue:

"I am coming to the fleet to give you news."

"What language does the man speak?" said the interpreter to Albinik. "I
do not catch his meaning, although his language does not seem entirely
strange."

"He speaks half Irish, half Gallic," answered Albinik. "I have often
trafficked on the coasts of his country. I understand the tongue. The
fellow says he has steered up to us to give us important news."

"Ask him what his news is."

"What information have you to give?" called Albinik to the Irishman.

"The Gallic vessels," answered he, "coming from various ports of
Brittany, joined forces yesterday evening in the bay I have just left.
They are in great number, well armed, well manned, and cleared for
action. They have chosen their anchorage at the foot of the bay, near
the harbor of Vannes. You will not be able to see them till after
doubling the promontory of A'elkern."

"The Irishman carries us favorable tidings," cried Albinik to the
interpreter. "The Gallic fleet is scattered on all sides; part of the
ships are in the river Auray; the others, still more distant, towards
the bay of Audiern, and Ouessant. At the foot of this bay, for the
defense of Vannes, are but five or six poor merchantmen, barely armed in
their haste."

"By Jupiter!" exclaimed the interpreter, "the gods, as always, are
favorable to Caesar!"

The praetor and the officers, to whom the interpreter repeated the false
news given by the pilot, seemed also overjoyed at the dispersion of the
fleet of Gaul. Vannes was thus delivered into the hands of the Romans
almost without defenses on the sea side.

Then Albinik said to the interpreter, indicating the soldier with the
axe:

"Caesar has suspected me. The gods have been kind to allow me to prove
the injustice of his suspicions. Do you see that islet, about a hundred
oar-lengths ahead?"

"I see it."

"In order to enter the bay, we must take one of two passages, one to the
right of the islet, the other to the left. The fate of the Roman fleet
is in my hands. I could pilot you by one of these passages, which to the
eye is exactly like the other, and an undercurrent would tow your
galleys onto a sunken reef. Not one would escape."