urdered, unless we can get them
out; and I and my brother Leigh, whom you all know, have come for
that purpose."

"Well, captain, you can count upon both of us, heart and soul. But
I don't see how it is going to be done. The prison is a strong
place, and well guarded. I have no doubt that we could count on
getting twenty stout men, along the wharf, but that would not be
much use. They have more than that on guard and, before we could
get into the prison, they would come swarming down, any number of
them."

"We have forty young fellows from my neighbourhood, who will by
tomorrow be hidden away in the wood, a mile and a half higher up
the river."

"That will be a help, sir; but even with two hundred we should not
be able to do much."

"We shall have plenty of time to talk it over, afterwards. Get the
sail up and drop down the river. Keep close to the opposite bank.
It is important that we should not be noticed, as we pass the
town."

"Well, sir, there is hardly air enough to fill the sails. I should
say that we had best tow her across to the other side, in the small
boat; and then drift till we are fairly beyond the town. We are
safe not to be seen then."

"Perhaps that will be the best plan, Rouget."

The men went out and, in two or three minutes, the sound of the
oars could be heard.

"I can't say that the lookout is very hopeful, Leigh."

"I did not think that anyone would think it so, Jean; but it seems
to me that it is just because everyone seems so confident that the
prison is safe from attack, that we shall have a chance. The thing
that is troubling me most is where we can get a barrel of
gunpowder. We must have powder to blow open the gate. I expect that
any of the doors we may find locked, inside, will give way if a
pistol is fired through the keyhole; but to blow in the main gate
of the prison we must get powder, and a good deal of it. That,
however, is a matter in which we shall find that money will be of
use.

"There are too many officials in the prison for us to hope to get
any one out, without eight or ten being in the plot; and as these,
we hear, are all fellows who are heart and soul with the
Convention, it is not possible to attempt it in that way. But when,
as you know, the Blues succeeded in bribing a Vendean to tamper
with our guns, it ought not to be such a difficult thing to bribe
one of these fellows, who is in charge of ammunition, to let us
have a barrel or two of powder."

"Tha