as any one of you attempts to infringe these regulations, I
will shoot him. We are very good friends; I do not bear you the
slightest enmity, but our own safety demands this."

Our prisoners shrugged their shoulders. "_C'est la fortune de la
guerre_," was the only answer they at first made. They most of them
understood pretty clearly what Mr Randolph had said; besides, one, who
understood English the best, interpreted to the rest.

Mr Randolph waited a little time. "Do you agree to my terms?" he
asked.

"_Oui, monsieur_; _oui, oui_," was answered by all of them
simultaneously.

"If I grant you your freedom at once, will you give me your honour to
act as I desire?" asked Mr Randolph. "I do not wish you to do so while
you sit there bound like slaves."

The idea seemed to take their fancy amazingly, and as soon as we had
unlashed their arms, by Mr Randolph's orders, they got up, and all
together, putting their hands on their breasts, swore solemnly not again
to attempt to retake the ship. It is impossible to describe their
manner, or the air with which they uttered the words.

They did not seem, however, much to like being kept separate from each
other, but Mr Randolph very wisely would not abate in any way the
regulations he had formed. He allowed one of them at a time to go into
the caboose to cook, for they did not at all approve of our style of
cooking, and one of them, who spoke English, remarked that it was only
fit for bears and wolves. We laughed, and observed, in return, that
people have different tastes, and that we had no fancy for the kickshaws
and trifles which satisfied them. (_Quelque chose_ and _troufles_,
perhaps I ought to have written.)

When a Frenchman is asked what he will have for dinner, he begins by
saying _quelque chose au troufles_, and then goes on to enumerate all
sorts of things, just as an Englishman replies, a mutton-chop or
beefsteak, and finally orders turtle-soup, salmon, and a venison pasty;
not that I can own to having ever been guilty of such a proceeding.

After we had settled with the Frenchmen, we allowed the blacks to come
down, and ordering them into the waist, told them to keep there on pain
of being shot, and on no account to communicate with any one else.
They, grinning, pointed to our muskets, and assured us that while we
kept those in our hands they would most implicitly obey us.

These matters being arranged, we each of us stuck a brace of pistols in
our