it to his assertions, yet Courtenay, who had
never heard him, believed that he was pretty well acquainted with the
language.

But, soon after they had parted with the frigate, when Courtenay desired
the French prisoners to lay hold of the ropes and assist in shortening
sail, they all refused. Seymour was not on deck at the time; he had
been desired to superintend the arrangements below: and although he had
been informed of their conduct, he had not yet spoken to the prisoners.
Two of them were sitting aft under the lee of the weather-bulwark, as
Seymour was walking the deck to and fro. They were in earnest
conversation, when Seymour stopped near to them, carelessly leaning over
the weather-quarter, watching the long following seas, when he overheard
one say to the other--

"_Taisez, peut-etre qu'il nous entend_."

"_Nous verrons_," replied the other--who immediately rose, and addressed
Seymour in French relative to the weather. What he had previously heard
induced our hero to shake his head, and continue to look over the
weather-quarter, and as Seymour only answered in the English negative to
a further interrogation, the prisoners did not think it worth while to
remove out of his hearing, but, satisfied with his not being able to
comprehend them, sat down again, and resumed their conversation. The
lurching of the vessel was a sufficient reason for not walking the deck;
but Seymour, to remove all suspicion, took another turn or two, and then
again held on by the ropes close by the Frenchmen. The wind blew too
fresh to permit him to catch more than an occasional sentence or two of
their conversation; but what he heard made him more anxious to collect
more.

"_Ils ne sont que seize, avec ce petit misere_," observed one, "_et nous
sommes_--" Here the rest of the sentence was lost. Seymour reckoned up
the English on board, and found that, with Billy Pitt, whom Macallan had
allowed Courtenay to take with him as his steward, they exactly amounted
to that number. The latter epithet he considered, justly enough, to be
bestowed upon his friend Jerry. A few minutes afterwards, he
intercepted--

"They'll throw us overboard, if we do not succeed--we'll throw them
overboard, if we do."

"_Courage, mon ami, il n'y aura pas de difficulte; nous sommes trop
forts_," replied the other, as, terminating their conversation, they
rose and walked forward.

It was evident to our hero that something was in agitation; but at the