e the pride of Springhaven. He saved poor
Dolly from drowning, when she was very young, and the boat upset. His
father chastised him cruelly for falling under bad influence. Then he
ran away from the village, and seems to have been in French employment.
But he was kept in the dark, and had no idea that he was acting against
his own country."

"He has been a traitor," said Lord Nelson, sternly. "I cannot help such
a man, even for your sake."

"He has not been a traitor, but betrayed," cried Faith; "he believed
that his only employment was to convey private letters for the poor
French prisoners, of whom we have so many hundreds. I will not contend
that he was right in that; but still it was no very great offence.
Even you must have often longed to send letters to those you loved in
England; and you know how hard it is in war time. But what they really
wanted him for was to serve as their pilot upon this coast. And the
moment he discovered that, though they offered him bags of gold to do
it, he faced his death like an Englishman. They attempted to keep him
in a stupid state with drugs, so that he might work like a mere machine.
But he found out that, and would eat nothing but hard biscuit. They had
him in one of their shallow boats, or prames, as they call them, which
was to lead them in upon signal from the arch-traitor. This was on
Saturday, Saturday night--that dreadful time when we were all so gay.
They held a pair of pistols at poor Dan's head, or at least a man was
holding one to each of his ears, and they corded his arms, because he
ventured to remonstrate. That was before they had even started, so you
may suppose what they would have done to us. Poor Daniel made up his
mind to die, and it would have eased his mind, he says now, if he had
done so. But while they were waiting for the signal, which through dear
father's vigilance they never did receive, Dan managed to free both
his hands in the dark, and as soon as he saw the men getting sleepy,
he knocked them both down, and jumped overboard; for he can swim like a
fish, or even better. He had very little hopes of escaping, as he says,
and the French fired fifty shots after him. With great presence of mind,
he gave a dreadful scream, as if he was shot through the head at least,
then he flung up his legs, as if he was gone down; but he swam under
water for perhaps a hundred yards, and luckily the moon went behind
a black cloud. Then he came to a boat, which had broke