From Powder Monkey to Admiral Part 10

When Dame Turgot and Jeannette heard what had occurred, they expressed their delight at seeing their young friends back.

"We must not let you go to sea again, for it would be a sad thing to hear that you had been captured and shot for being deserters," said Jeannette.

She had the same idea which had occurred to Jack.

The English frigates were at this time so frequently seen off the coast, that Captain Turgot, who had several boats as well as the cutter, thought it prudent to confine his operations to insh.o.r.e fishing, so as not to run the risk of being captured.

Jack and Bill sometimes went out with him, but, for some reason or other, he more generally left them at home.

Pierre, who was a good swimmer, induced them to come down and bathe with him in the morning, and gave them instruction in the art.

Jack could already swim a little. Bill took to it at once, and beat him hollow; in a short time being able to perform all sorts of evolutions.

He was soon so perfectly at home in the water, that he declared he felt able to swim across the Channel, if he could carry some food with him to support himself on the way.

Jack laughed at the idea, observing that "n.o.body ever had swum across the Channel, and he did not believe that anybody ever would do so."

Pierre advised Bill not to make the attempt.

"No fear," said Jack. "He'll not go without me, and I am not going to drown myself if I can help it."

Bill, however, often thought over the matter, and tried to devise some plan by which he and Jack might manage to get across. His plans came to nothing; and, indeed, the Channel where they were was much too wide to be crossed except in a small vessel or in a large boat. Jack was beginning to speak French pretty well, and Bill was able to gabble away with considerable fluency, greatly to the delight of Jeannette, who was his usual instructress. He tried to teach her a little English in return, but she laughed at her own attempts, and declared that she should never be able to p.r.o.nounce so break-jaw a language.

Bill thought that she got on very well, but she seemed more anxious to teach him French than to learn English herself.

Several weeks more pa.s.sed by. Well treated as they were, still the boys had a longing to return to England, though the opportunity of doing so appeared as far off as ever.

They were in the house one afternoon, laughing and joking merrily with Jeannette, while Dame Turgot was away at the neighbouring town to market, when the door opened, and she entered, with a look of alarm on her countenance.

"Quick, quick, come here!" she said; and seizing them both by the arms, she dragged them into the little inner room.

"Pull off your clothes and jump into bed!" she exclaimed. "Whatever you hear, don't move or speak, but pretend to be fast asleep."

They obeyed her; and s.n.a.t.c.hing up their jackets and trousers, she hurried from the room, locking the door behind her.

She had just time to tumble their clothes into a chest, when a loud knocking was heard at the door. She opened it, and several soldiers, under the command of a sergeant, entered.

The boys guessed who they were by their voices, and the noise they made when grounding their muskets.

"Well, messieurs," said Dame Turgot, with perfect composure, "and what do you want here?"

"We come in search of prisoners. It is reported that you have some concealed in your house," said the sergeant.

"Ma foi! that is a good joke! I conceal prisoners indeed!" exclaimed the dame, laughing. "Pray who are these notable prisoners?"

"That's for you to say. We only know that you have prisoners," answered the sergeant.

"Then, if you will have it so, one may possibly be a general, and the other an admiral, and the sooner they are lodged in the Bastille, the better for the safety of France," answered the dame, laughing. "I am a loyal Frenchwoman, and can cry 'Vive le Roi!' 'Vive la France!' with all my heart."

Jack and Bill, who had quaked at the thoughts of being made prisoners by the soldiers, now began to have better hope of escaping.

The sergeant, however, was not to be deceived by Dame Turgot's manner.

"Come, come, I must search your house, notwithstanding. For that purpose I was sent, and I must perform my duty," he said; and he hunted round the room.

"Now let us look into your room;" and the soldiers, entering, began poking about with their bayonets, running them under the bed, and through the bedding, in a way likely to kill anybody concealed.

Jeannette's little room was visited and treated in the same manner.

"And what's this room?" asked the sergeant, pointing to the boys' room.

"That? That is a closet," answered the dame; "or if you like it, the general and admiral are both there fast asleep, but I am unwilling to disturb them."

She said this in a laughing tone, as if she were joking.

"Well, open the door," said the sergeant, not expecting to find anybody.

"But I tell you the door is locked. Who has got the key, I wonder?"

said the dame.

"Come, come, unlock the door, or we must force it open," said the sergeant, making as if he was about to prise it open with his bayonet.

On this the dame pulled the key out of her pocket, and opening the door, exclaimed--

"There in one bed you will find the general, and in the other the admiral; or, without joking, they are two poor boys whom my good man picked up at sea, and already they are more French than English."

The sergeant, looking into the beds, discovered the boys.

"Come, get up, mes garcons," he said; "you must come with me, whoever you are, and give an account of yourselves."

Neither of the boys made any reply, deeming it wiser to keep silence.

"Come along," he said; and he dragged first one, and then the other, out of bed.

"Bring the boys' clothes," he added, turning to the dame, who quickly brought their original suits.

They soon dressed themselves, hanging their knives round their necks.

"I told you the truth. You see who and what they are!" exclaimed the dame.

Jeannette, too, pleaded eloquently on their behalf, but the sergeant was unmoved.

"All you say may be right, but I must take them," he answered. "Come-- quick march!"

He allowed them, however, to take an affectionate farewell of the dame and Jeannette, the latter bursting into tears as she saw them dragged off by the soldiers.

CHAPTER SEVEN.