ouse.

"I am not a gaoler, and can be answerable for no one," was the reply, at
which the captain shook his fist and rode off, exclaiming, "Take care,
take care!"

Though very unwilling to receive the prisoners, the old gentleman
treated them with a courtesy which seemed to arise rather from respect
to himself than from any regard he entertained for them. The two
midshipmen were shown into one small room, and the seamen, with their
guards, into another. In the room occupied by O'Grady and Paul, there
was a table and chairs and a sofa, while the view from the window
consisted of a well-kept garden and vineyard, a green meadow and wooded
hills beyond. As far as accommodation was concerned, they had little of
which to complain; but they were very hungry, and O'Grady began to
complain that the old Frenchman intended to starve them.

"I'll go and shout and try to get something," he cried out, but he found
that the door was locked outside.

The window was too high from the ground to allow them to jump out, and
as they would probably be caught, and punished for attempting to run
away, they agreed to stay where they were. At length the door opened,
and a bright-eyed, nicely-dressed girl came in with a tray covered with
edibles, and a bottle of wine in her hands. They stood up as she
entered, and bowed. She smiled, and expressed her sympathy for their
misfortunes. Paul had, hitherto, not let the Frenchmen know that he
understood French.

"I think that I may venture to speak to her," he said to O'Grady. "She
would not have said that if she didn't wish to assist us."

O'Grady agreed that it would be perfectly safe, and so Paul addressed
her in the choicest French he could command, and told her how they had
been coming home in a merchantman, and had been captured, and robbed of
all they possessed, instead of being, as they had hoped, in a few days
in the bosom of their families, with their mothers and brothers and
sisters.

"And you both have brothers and sisters, and they long to see you,
doubtless," said the little girl.

"Oh yes, and we long to see them," exclaimed Paul, believing that he had
moved her heart.

She sighed. "Ah, I once had many, but they are all now in the world of
spirits; they cannot come to me, but for their sakes I will try to serve
you," answered the girl.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" said Paul. "If you could help us to get out
of this house, and to hide away till the pursuit is over, w