a
short distance from St. Malo, near the peak of the "Decolle," a spot
where the cliff is high and the sea deep.

A line of rocks in the form of the top of a lance, and connecting
themselves with the land by a narrow isthmus, stretch out there into the
water, ending abruptly with a large peak-shaped breaker. Nothing is
commoner in the architecture of the sea. In attempting to reach the
plateau of the peaked rock from the shore, it was necessary to follow an
inclined plane, the ascent of which was here and there somewhat steep.

It was upon a plateau of this kind, towards four o'clock in the
afternoon, that a man was standing, enveloped in a large military cape,
and armed; a fact easy to be perceived from certain straight and angular
folds in his mantle. The summit on which this man was resting was a
rather extensive platform, dotted with large masses of rock, like
enormous paving-stones, leaving between them narrow passages. This
platform, on which a kind of thick, short grass grew here and there,
came to an end on the sea side in an open space, leading to a
perpendicular escarpment. The escarpment, rising about sixty feet above
the level of the sea, seemed cut down by the aid of a plumb-line. Its
left angle, however, was broken away, and formed one of those natural
staircases common to granite cliffs worn by the sea, the steps of which
are somewhat inconvenient, requiring sometimes the strides of a giant or
the leaps of an acrobat. These stages of rock descended perpendicularly
to the sea, where they were lost. It was a break-neck place. However, in
case of absolute necessity, a man might succeed in embarking there,
under the very wall of the cliff.

A breeze was sweeping the sea. The man wrapped in his cape and standing
firm, with his left hand grasping his right shoulder, closed one eye,
and applied the other to a telescope. He seemed absorbed in anxious
scrutiny. He had approached the edge of the escarpment, and stood there
motionless, his gaze immovably fixed on the horizon. The tide was high;
the waves were beating below against the foot of the cliffs.

The object which the stranger was observing was a vessel in the offing,
and which was manoeuvring in a strange manner. The vessel, which had
hardly left the port of St. Malo an hour, had stopped behind the
Banquetiers. It had not cast anchor, perhaps because the bottom would
only have permitted it to bear to leeward on the edge of the cable, and
because the shi