was proof to him God was with us; we thought we were lost when we
grounded, yet that sandbank was what had saved us. Just then Mr
Snellgrove came down the ladder. 'I have just bade the captain good
night,' he said, 'and I am authorized by him to inform you all danger is
past. Had an executive committee been appointed the moment the vessel
struck matters would have gone on with less confusion. We are safe,
however, notwithstanding we have a Jonah on board.'

Mr Kerr who was, like all of us, excited by the accident, asked, 'You
mean me?'

Yes, you are a fugitive from the justice which would have punished you
as you deserve for sedition. The world has come to a strange pass when
tailors would dictate to the Powers ordained by God how the realm is to
be governed. For one I am loyal to my King and his advisers in all they
ordain. England's glorious bulwark is her throne and the nobility who
surround it.'

The little man stood on the lower rungs of the ladder, in front of the
lantern that swung from a beam, so I saw him clearly. To our surprise Mr
Kerr came forward and spoke slowly and quietly. 'I do not wish you, my
fellow passengers, to look upon me any longer as a fugitive from
justice, and will explain how it comes that circumstances give color to
the charge. I have a brother, older than myself and father of a large
family. One day in April, a clerk in the sheriff's office, who is a
cousin, came to me at night to tell me that a spy who had attended a
meeting of the Liberal club, had laid an information that my brother had
spoken disrespectfully of the King, George the Fourth, and his advisers.
On the strength of this, a warrant was prepared for his arrest on the
charge of sedition. The spy had made a mistake in the first name and had