.

Several times Will was one of those allowed out, and he set himself to
work to make the acquaintance of some of the townspeople. As he was one of
the few who could speak French, he had no difficulty in getting up a
chatty acquaintance with several people, among them a young girl living in
a house close to the wall. She had looked pitifully at him the first time
he had come out with a small load of merchandise.

"Ah, my poor young fellow," she said in French, "how hard it is for you to
be thus kept a prisoner far from all your friends!"

"Thank you, mademoiselle," he said, "but it is the fortune of war, and
English as well as French must submit to it."

"You speak French!" she said. "Yes, yes, monsieur, I feel it as much as
any. There is one who is very dear to me a prisoner in England. He is a
soldier."

"Well, mademoiselle, it is a pity that they don't exchange us. We give a
lot of trouble to your people, and the French prisoners give a lot of
trouble to ours, so it would be much better to restore us to our friends."

"Ah! that is what I say. How happy I should be if my dear Lucien were
restored to me."

So the acquaintance became closer and closer, and at last Will ventured to
say: "If I were back in England, mademoiselle, I might perhaps get your
Lucien out. You could give me his name and the prison in which he is
confined, and it would be hard if I could not manage to aid him to
escape."

"Ah, monsieur, that would be splendid!" the girl said, clasping her hands.
"If you could but get away!"

"Well, mademoiselle, I think I could manage to escape if I had but a
little help. For example, from the top window of this house I think I
could manage to jump upon the wall, and if you could but furnish me with a
rope I could easily make my escape. Of course I should want a suit of
peasant's clothes, for, you see, I should be detected at once if I tried
to get away in this uniform. I speak French fairly now, and think I could
pass as a native."

"You speak it very well, monsieur, but oh, I dare not help you to escape!"

"I am not asking you to, mademoiselle; I am only saying how it could be
managed, and that if I could get back to England I might aid your lover."

The girl was silent.

"It could never be," she murmured.

"I am not asking it, mademoiselle; and now I must be going on."

The next time he came she said: "I have been thinking over what you said,
monsieur, and I feel that it would be cowardly ind