hour I was once more summoned to the cabin, where
I found Tourville sitting at the table. The man had now completely
regained his self-control; he was perfectly calm, and waved me
courteously to a seat on the cabin sofa, which I took.

"Monsieur Fortescue," said he, "I shall not mock you or myself by
pretending to excuse or apologise for my recent outbreak of violence,
for it is due to a weakness which I am wholly unable to conquer, and
which may, quite possibly, get the better of me again. If it should, I
must ask you to kindly be patient and forbearing with me, and to keep
out of my way until the fit has passed. What I particularly wish to say
to you now is that you are from this moment perfectly safe so long as it
may be necessary for you to honour my ship with your presence. But,
since you will naturally desire to rejoin your own ship as speedily as
possible, I propose to tranship you into the first vessel bearing the
British flag which we may chance to fall in with--provided, of course,
that she is not a ship of war. Should we happen to fall in with a
British man-o'-war, my course of action will be guided by circumstances;
I shall not feel myself justified in trusting to her captain's
magnanimity to let us go free after delivering you safe on board her;
but should the weather be fine enough to allow of such a proceeding
without risk to you, I will give you a boat in which you may make your
own way on board her. Meanwhile, I beg that you will regard yourself as
my guest, free to come and go in this cabin as you please, and to take
your meals at my table; and I have also made arrangements for your
greater comfort in the state-room which Leroy assigned to you when you
came aboard last night. I trust that these plans of mine will be
agreeable to you."

I replied that they were not only perfectly agreeable to me, but that I
regarded them as exceedingly generous--taking all the circumstances of
the case into consideration; that I regretted his violent antipathy to
Englishmen, as I feared that, in consequence of it, my presence could
never be otherwise than exceedingly disagreeable to him, but that during
my enforced sojourn aboard _La Mouette_ I would strive to render my
nationality as little obtrusive as possible, and that I trusted we might
very soon be fortunate enough to fall in with a craft of some sort into
which he could transfer me. To which he replied that he fervently hoped
so too, for both our sakes;