“Ah!” cried he, with sudden passion, rising from his seat and walking to and fro in the chamber, “would that I had always at my side a man that I could trust! He should be related to me, if that were possible, either by blood or by marriage” (here he cast a look at my face, yet suddenly and hastily, not as doing it with intention), “and ’twould be all as well if he wan’t a Frenchman. He should be next to me in all things, and I would always seek his counsel, feeling assured that such a man was the immediate gift of heaven. What do you say, Mr Carlyon? Are you acquainted with any such person? You will think upon the matter, and if there come to your mind one that may seem to you worthy of my trust and of such a high place, you will give me to know of him.” “Most gladly, my lord,” said I, though somewhat slowly, for he was regarding me strangely, as I thought. He remained silent for some time, his chin on his hand, and then spake again. “Mr Carlyon, I am about to repose a great trust in you. You must perceive that I entertain the highest confidence in your honour and discretion before I should so far outrage the customs of my great nation as to prefer you to the charge I now propose to you. You have heard that a Dutch fleet has lain of late before our walls, and left us only in that _hurracan_ that preceded your coming hither?” “Yes, my lord,” says I. “Mr Marigny hath told me on’t.” “Now that our harbour is once more free,” saith his lordship, “it is in my mind to go out with the ships that are left us, and voyage along the coast, seeking whether there be any place more propitious than this for us poor exiles. On such a voyage as this there may well be both hardship and danger, and I don’t desire that my daughter shall accompany me. She must remain here, but I am interested to leave with her a protector in whom I can repose confidence. Will you be so good as accept this office?” “My lord,” says I, struck with amazement, “you do me a very great honour, but sure your own officers will take it very ill in me to pretend to such a post.” “I am indifferent to that,” says he, “and you will do well to be so too. As to my officers, moreover, the most of ’em will go with me, leaving only enough to hold the place. These are generally very young, and might venture to presume upon the favour granted ’em, and as for Laborde, the commandant of the fort, to whom I should naturally have intrusted this office, he thought fit, some time ago (I am speaking to you freely and in confidence, sir), to pretend to my daughter’s hand. Mademoiselle de Tourvel rejected his vows, with my approbation, but you can well perceive, sir, how unpleasant ’twould be to her sensibilities to be brought into close relation with him.”