degree of latitude north from the twenty-seventh to the twentyeighth of longitude,—that is, near to passing the line. This big letter had a shape all its own. It was long, and so tightly closed that I could not read between the angles, nor through the envelope. I am not superstitious, but it made me afraid.

"I was occupied in putting this letter under the glass of the clock when my exile entered my room; he held by the hand a beautiful young girl, about seventeen years old. He told me that he was nineteen; a fine-looking boy, though a little pale, and too white for a man. His little wife was fresh and gay as a child. They looked like two turtle-doves. It gave me pleasure to see them. I said to them, 'Well, my children, you have come to visit the old captain? That is very good of you. I am taking you rather far away, but so much the better: we shall have time to become acquainted. I am sorry to receive madame without my coat, but I was nailing that great rascally letter 'way up there. If you would help me a little? That made good little children of them. The little husband took the hammer, and the little wife the nails, and they passed them to me as I asked for them; and she called to me, "To the right! to the left! captain!" laughing as she did so, for the pitching made my clock unsteady. 'Ah!' I said, 'little mischief! I shall make your husband scold you, see if I do not.' Then she threw her arms about his neck and kissed him. They were really very nice. We immediately became good friends. The trip was beautiful. I always did have weather made to order. As I had none but black faces on board, I made the two little lovers come to my table every other day. It enlivened me. When we had eaten the biscuits and fish, the little wife and her husband would remain gazing at each other, as if they had never seen one another before. Then I would begin to laugh with all my heart, and make fun of them. They too would laugh with me. You would have laughed too, to see us laughing like three imbeciles, not knowing what was the matter with us. They slept in a hammock, where the vessel would roll them over and over like these two pears, which I have here in my wet handkerchief. They were lively and contented. I did as you do: I did not question. What need was there that I should know their name and their affairs? I was taking them across the sea, as I would have taken two birds of Paradise. I ended after a month by looking on them All day long, when I called them, they would

as my children.

come and sit by me.

The young man wrote at my table,- that is, on my bed: and when I wished it, he would help me to keep my course; he soon knew how to do it as well as I, and I was sometimes forbidden to do it. The young woman would seat herself on a little barrel, and sew. One day as they were thus sitting, I said to them:

«Do you know, little friends, that we make a fine family picture as we are now? I do not want to question you; but probably you have not more money than you need, and you are both prodigiously delicate to spade and hoe, as the exiles do in Cayenne. It is an ugly country; I tell you the truth: but I, who am an old wolfskin dried in the sun, I could live there like a lord. If you have, as it seems to me you have (without wishing to question you), a little friendship for me, I will willingly leave my old brig, which is only a sabot now, and establish myself with you, if it would please you. I have no more family than a dog, and that worries me: you would be a little society for me. I would help you in many things: I have saved up a nice little heap, on which we can live, and which I shall leave to you when I come to turn up my eyes, as we say politely.' Astonished, they looked at one another, apparently believing that I had not spoken the truth; then the little one ran, as she always did, threw herself on the bosom of the other, and sat on his knee, all red and weeping. He pressed her close in his arms, and I saw tears in his eyes too; he stretched out his hand to me and became paler than usual. She spoke softly to him, and her long blonde tresses fell on his shoulder; her twist had become undone, like a cable which unrolls suddenly. That hair-if you had seen it! it was like gold.

"As they still spoke low, the young man kissing her brow from time to time, and she weeping, I grew impatient. 'Well, does that suit you?' I said at last. 'But-but, captain, you are very good;' said the husband, 'but-you could not live with deported convicts-' he lowered his eyes.

"'I,' said I, 'do not know what you have done to be exiled; but you shall tell me some day if you choose, or you shall not if you choose. You do not seem to me to have a very heavy conscience; I am very sure that I have done much more in my life than you, poor innocents! For instance, as long as you are under my guard, I shall not let you go: you need not expect it; I would sooner cut your throats as I would two pigeons. But

once my epaulet removed, I know no longer either admiral or anything else.'

"What I am thinking is,' he replied, sadly shaking his brown head, slightly powdered as it was still worn in those days, 'that it would be dangerous for you, captain, to seem to know us. We laugh because we are so young; we seem to be happy because we love each other: but I have some ugly moments when I think of the future, and I do not know what will become of my poor Laure.' He again pressed the young wife's head to his breast. "That was what I should say to the captain, was it not, my child? Would you not have said the same thing?'

"I took my pipe and got up; for I began to feel my eyes growing moist, and that was not becoming to me.

"Come, come!' I said: 'that will all be cleared up after a while. If the tobacco is unpleasant to madame, her absence will be necessary.' She arose, her face all on fire and wet with tears, like a child that has been scolded.

"And yet,' she said, looking at my clock, 'you two do not think about it-that letter!'

"I felt as if something had struck me. up under my hair when she said that to me.

I had a kind of pain.

"Pardieu! I did not think of it,' I said. 'Ah, here indeed is a pretty affair! If we have passed the first degree north, all I can do is to throw myself overboard!' I must be lucky: that child reminded me of that devilish letter!

"I looked quickly at my marine map; and when I saw that there was still a week ahead of us, my head felt easier, but not my heart, I could not tell why.

"It is because the Directory does not joke about the article obedience!' I said. 'Good! I am once more afloat this time.

Time flew so quickly that I had entirely forgotten it.'

"Well, sir, we remained all three with our noses in the air, looking at that letter as if it were going to speak to us. What struck me very much was that the sun, which slipped in through the skylight, lit up the glass of the clock, and made the big red seal and the other little ones seem like features of a face in the midst of fire.

"Would not one say that the eyes were starting from his head?' I said to amuse them.

"Oh! my friend,' said the young woman, 'it looks like blood stains.'

"Bah! bah!' said her husband, laying her arm in his, 'you are mistaken, Laure: it looks like a card of announcement of a marriage. Come and rest yourself, come: why let that letter bother you?'

"They went off. I remained alone with that big letter; and I remember that while smoking my pipe, I continued to look at it, as if those red eyes had attached mine to them by drawing them ever as do the eyes of a serpent.

"The night was more beautiful than any I had ever seen in my life so near the tropics The moon rose on the horizon as large as a sun; the sea cut it in half, and became all white, like a cloth of snow covered with little diamonds. I was glad to hear nothing. I love silence and order. I had forbidden all noises and all fires. Nevertheless I perceived a small red line almost under my feet. I should have got into a temper instantly; but as it was in the cabin of my little convicts, I wished to be sure of what they were doing before I grew angry. I had only to bend down: I could see through the big hatchway into the little room, and I looked. The young wife was on her knees praying. A small lamp threw its light on her. I thought I would slip away, but I said, 'Bah! an old soldier, what does it matter?' And I remained to see. While she prayed, her husband took the ends of her long hair and kissed them noiselessly. When she had finished she made the sign of the cross, with the air of going to paradise. She got up, kissed him, and stretched herself in the hammock, into which he had tossed her without saying a word, as one sets a child on a seesaw. There was a choking heat: with pleasure she felt herself swinging with the motion of the vessel, and seemed to begin to fall asleep. My friend,' said she, half asleep, are you not sleepy? Do you know that it is very late?'

"On a beautiful morning I awoke, astonished to feel no motion of the vessel. We had fallen in a dead calm, and it was on the first degree of north latitude and the twenty-seventh of longitude. I poked my nose out: the sea was as smooth as a bowl of oil. The sails, all spread, fell glued to the masts like empty balloons. I said quickly, 'I've got time enough before me yet to read you,' looking sideways at the letter. I waited till sundown that night. But it had to come: I opened the clock and quickly took out the sealed order. Well, my dear sir, I held it there for a quarter of an hour before I could make up my mind to read it.

At last I said, 'This is too much!' and I broke the three seals with one thumb-stroke; and the great red seal I ground into dust. After I had read it I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was mistaken. I re-read the letter entirely; I read it over again; I began it again at the last line, and went up to the first. I did not believe it. My legs trembled a little under me; I sat down; I felt a twitching of the skin on my face; I rubbed my cheeks a little with rum, and I poured some in the hollow of my hands, and I pitied myself for being such a fool: but it was only an affair of a moment. I went up into the open air. Laurette was so pretty that day that I did not want to go near her: she wore a little white dress quite simple, her arms bare to the shoulder, and her long hair hanging as she always wore it.

"I made a sign to the young man to come and speak to me on the quarter-deck behind. She turned. I do not know how I looked, but she took him by the arm violently, and said, 'Oh! do not go: he is so pale!'

"He came, though, close to me on the quarter-deck; she looked at us, leaning against the great mast. We walked to and fro for a long time without speaking. I was smoking a cigar, which I found bitter, and I spat into the water. He followed me with his eyes; I took his arm: I was choking; on my word of honor I was choking.

"Ah, here!' I said to him, 'tell me something of your history, my little friend. What in the devil have you done to those dogs of lawyers there, setting themselves up like the King's fivefranc pieces? They seem to have a bad grudge against you. It's funny!'

"He shrugged his shoulders, hanging his head (with such a sweet air, the poor boy), and said to me:

"O my heavens, captain! no great thing, I assure you: three couplets of vaudeville on the Directory, that is all.' "Impossible!' I said.

"O my God, yes! The couplets were not even very good. I was arrested the 15th Fructidor, and conducted to La Force; condemned first to death, then through benevolence to exile.'

"It is curious,' I said. 'The Directeurs are very susceptible comrades; for that letter, you know, gives me the order to shoot you.'

"He did not answer, but smiled, putting a good enough face on it for a young man of nineteen. He only looked at his wife,