reffier, the prisoner says that
the letters were carried by one Alain Le Gallais. You are sure of that,
Benoist?"

"As sure as my name is Peter." A cock crew in the yard of the castle.
The coincidence did not seem to strike any of the party in the room.

"By what route did Le Gallais go?"

"He went by Boulay Bay."

"By what conveyance?"

"By Lesbirel's lugger."

"When did he go last?"

"This is the fourth day."

Carteret compared these replies with some that lay before him, and
proceeded:--

"Do you know when he will return?"

"I cannot know; but I can divine. The wind is changing; if he landed at
Southampton on Monday night he would be in London in twenty-four hours,
riding on the horses of the Parliament. Riding back in the same way he
might be back in Boulay Bay, with a fair wind, some time to-morrow."

"_C'est assez_," said the Governor, "take the prisoner away; but not to
his former quarters. Lodge him in Prynne's old cell."

As the prisoner was being removed, in obedience to these orders, he was
seen to limp heavily, and there was a bandage on one of his legs.

"March, comrade," said one of his guards, when they were in the
corridor.

"My leg was hurt, John Le Gros, when I tried to escape last night."

"Not so badly but you can walk if you like," and the militia-man
emphasised his words by a slight thrust with the point of his weapon.

To which of the parties in the island Master Benoist was faithful, the
muse that presides over this history declines to reveal: perhaps he was
an impartial traitor to both. It became presently clear that, in any
case, his lameness was little more than a feint. During that same night
he made a rope of his bedding, and letting himself down from the window
of his cell at high water, swam like a fish to the unwatched shore of
Anneport, and so effected his escape. It was long ere he was again heard
of by the Jersey authorities; but there is no record to show that he was
either mourned or missed.

For the next three nights a party of soldiers--not militia-men, but
Cornishmen of the Royal body-guard--occupied a hut on the landing-place
at Boulay Bay, belonging to Lesbirel, the man whose lugger was known to
be employed in the communication between the Parliamentary party in the
island and their English allies. The third night being dark and stormy,
the patrol was suspended by orders of the sergeant in command, and the
men devoted themselves to the indoor pleasures affo