hearted old fellow in the main, actually condescending to apologise for
his hasty speech; and, the steward at that moment announcing that
breakfast was on the table, we all--that is to say, the admiral, Captain
Bradshaw, Courtenay, and myself--trundled into the cabin and took our
places at the table. Then, for the first time, as we found ourselves
once more in the society of our own countrymen, with good wholesome
English fare sending forth its grateful odours to our nostrils, with the
table covered with its snowy linen, and laden with the handsome, yet
home-like breakfast equipage, did we fully realise all that we had
passed through since we had last found ourselves so placed, and for my
part the revulsion of feeling almost overcame me. The emotions of a
midshipman are, however, proverbially of a very transient character, and
I soon found myself prosecuting a most vigorous attack upon the
comestibles, and, between mouthfuls, relating in pretty full detail all
our adventures from the moment of the mutiny, excepting, of course, my
love passages with Dona Inez, which I kept strictly to myself.

The story of the mutiny naturally excited a very lively interest, and
Courtenay and I were questioned and cross-questioned upon the subject
until we were absolutely pumped dry, it transpiring that we were the
first survivors of that dreadful tragedy who had reappeared among our
own countrymen. The narrative of our sojourn in La Guayra did not, I
regret to say, prove one-tenth part so attractive; but when we reached
the subject of the Conconil lagoons, Merlani's treasure hoard, and the
scheme of the Spanish authorities to at once possess themselves of it
and suppress the piratical band, the interest again revived, and we were
questioned almost as closely on this subject as we had been about the
mutiny.

Before the meal was concluded, it had been settled that a schooner--
lately a French privateer--recently captured, and then in the hands of
the dockyard people undergoing the process of refitting, should be
hurried forward with all possible despatch, and commissioned by a
certain lieutenant O'Flaherty, with Courtenay and myself as his aides,
her especial mission to be the destruction of Merlani's stronghold, and
the capture of as many members of the piratical gang as we could lay
hands upon. As, however, it seemed that the _Foam_--as the schooner had
been re-christened--could not possibly be got ready under eight or ten
days at