In the afternoon I and my bride left for Hastings. Next day M. Oudin, with his heavy packing case of doubloons, bade farewell to my parents to return to Paris, where he had a very large leather business, and was accounted a wealthy man, as his brother had left him his whole fortune. Alec, in a few days, set out on his return to Jethou, compassing the distance as far as Dover in the "Happy Return," which I had presented to him, but could get no further in her, as a gale from the south-west set in, and further attempt at crossing would have been suicidal. He therefore waited a few days for a stone steamer to take both him and his boat to St. Sampson's Harbour, Guernsey, from which he crossed to his island home. I may add that as a wedding gift my father presented me with two new fishing smacks, complete with trawl net, herring nets, and other gear. On my part, to Priscilla I handed over Walter Johnson's cheque for a hundred pounds, which was duly honoured by his father. I think I have now spun my yarn to a finish, and if my readers have been interested in my narrative, I shall, with the sense of conveying pleasure to others, never regret the happy hours I myself spent while enjoying a Crusoe's life in the Channel Islands. _L'ENVOI._ At St. Peter's Church, Guernsey, on New Year's Day, ALEXANDER DUCAS, of Jethou, to JEANETTE GRAVIOT, of Herm. [Illustration: Decorative scroll] [Illustration: Decorative chapter heading] APPENDIX. A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE CHANNEL ISLES. To say that the Channel Islands are not known to the general public would be to say what is in these modern days of advertising untrue; but it may be doubted if they are so well known as they really deserve. They might very well be called the "Multum in Parvo Islands," for they contain a very great deal of beauty in a small space; in fact, it would be very difficult, if not quite impossible, to find another place of the same collective area with such a diversity of natural beauty. Hills, dales, bays, promontories, rocks, trees, lawns, dells, watercourses, and other natural features are here seen in every conceivable variety, and their beauties never pall upon one. The extent of the islands is roughly as follows:--