me vessel from
which they had previously escaped. Before dusk she was close to them;
and Newton, aware of the impossibility of resistance, hove-to, as a
signal of surrender.

VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWELVE.

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
SHAKESPEARE.

As the reader may have, before now, occasionally heard comments upon the
uncertainty of the moon and of the sea, and also, perhaps, of human
life, I shall not venture any farther remarks upon the subject; for were
they even new, I should never have the credit of them. This is certain,
that instead of finding themselves, as they anticipated to be in the
next twenty-four hours, safely moored in the port of Plymouth, Newton
and his comrades found themselves before that time had elapsed safely
locked up in the prison of Morlaix. But we must not proceed so fast.

Although the Estelle had squared her mainyard as a signal of submission,
the privateer's men, as they ranged their vessel alongside, thought it
advisable to pour in a volley of musketry: this might have proved
serious, had it not been that Newton and his crew were all down below,
hoping to secure a few changes of linen, which in a prison, might prove
very useful. As it was, their volley only killed the remaining French
prisoner, who remained on deck, overjoyed at the recapture, and
anticipating an immediate return to his own country; by which it would
appear that the "_L'homme propose, mais Dieu dispose_" of France, is
quite as sure a proverb as the more homely "Many a slip between the cup
and lip" of our own country.

The boat of the privateer was sent on board; a dozen men, with their
cutlasses flourishing over their heads, leapt on the deck of the
Estelle, and found nobody to exercise their valour upon, except the body
of their departed comrade; upon which they shouted for the "Sacre's God
dams" to "monter." Newton and the rest obeyed the summons, with their
bundles in their hands: the latter they were soon relieved of by their
conquerors, who, to prove that it was not out of "_politesse_" that they
carried their effects, at the same time saluted them with various blows
with their cutlasses upon their backs and shoulders. Newton, who felt
that resistance would only be an excuse for farther aggression, bore
with philosophy what he could not prevent, and hastened into the boat.
The convicts also took their share with patience--they had been
accustomed to "many stripes." Roberts and W