A few minutes later the two Frenchmen were brought up on deck to me, and I explained to them that I wanted them to exercise their usual functions,--at which they seemed highly pleased; and small wonder, either, for it was certainly more pleasant to work and be free, than to be cooped up below in idleness. Half-an-hour later we piped to a somewhat belated breakfast, and a very excellent one it was, too--far better than what we had been accustomed to aboard the frigate; and we came to the unanimous conclusion that in whatever other respect the French might be ignorant, they at least understood the art of living well. Breakfast over, Simmons went to work and routed out a spare fore-topgallant-mast, which he prepared for sending aloft, while the rest of the watch were busy clearing away the wreck forward; and by the time that the new spar was ready for swaying aloft we had overtaken the rest of the convoy, when the commodore sent away a boat, with the first lieutenant of the _Colossus_ in her, to receive my report. This I wrote out and handed to him, retaining a copy to be handed to Captain Vavassour; and after a little chat together our visitor instructed me to retain command of the prize until the return of the _Europa_, and meanwhile to take the place of that ship to assist in the protection of the convoy. He also informed me that during our absence the _Astarte_ had captured the ship privateer that had been so busy on the outskirts of the convoy a few hours before, while the boats of the _Colossus_ and the _Astarte_ had recaptured no less than five merchantmen that had been taken possession of by the marauders. As for the _Hebe_ and the _Naiad_, they had vanished in the northern board, and as yet there were no signs of their return.