of an unusual character. For, some days later, a new vessel, The
Colossus, having arrived in the roads, the Norwegian, Captain Krog,
although he had not, like me, an Admiralty passport, made an application
to the commander of this new ship; he was immediately claimed, and
relieved from captivity.

The report that I was a Spanish deserter, and proprietor of the vessel,
acquiring more and more credit, and this position being the most
dangerous of all, I resolved to get out of it. I begged the commandant
of the place, M. Alloy, to come to receive my declaration, and I
announced to him that I was French. To prove to him the truth of my
words, I invited him to send for Pablo Blanco, the sailor in the service
of the corsair who took us, and who had returned from his cruise a short
time before. This was done as I wished. In disembarking, Pablo Blanco,
who had not been warned, exclaimed with surprise: "What! you, Don
Francisco, mixed up with all these miscreants!" The sailor gave the
Governor circumstantial evidence as to the mission which I fulfilled
with two Spanish commissaries. My nationality thus became proved.

That same day Alloy was replaced in the command of the fortress by the
Irish Colonel of the Ultonian regiment; the corsair left for a fresh
cruise, taking away Pablo Blanco; and I became once more the roving
merchant from Schwekat.

From the windmill, where we underwent our quarantine, I could see the
tricoloured flag flying on the fortress of Figueras. The reconnoitring
parties of the cavalry came sometimes within five or six hundred metres;
it would not then have been difficult for me to escape. However, as the
regulations against those who violate the sanitary laws are very
rigorous in Spain, as they pronounce the penalty of death against him