I saw it would be best to tell the whole truth, at once; for, were I to get any aid from this lugger, the facts, sooner or later, must be made known. Accordingly, I gave the Frenchman, and his English-looking companion, a full account of what had occurred between us and the Speedy. After this narrative, there was another long conference between Mons. Gallois and his friend. Then the boat was again manned, and the captain of the lugger, accompanied by his privy-counsellor and myself, went on board the Dawn. Here, a very cursory examination satisfied my visiters of the truth of my story. I confess, I expected some commendation from a French man, when he heard the ready manner in which we had got our vessel out of the hands of the Philistines. No such thing; an expressive '_bon_' had escaped Mons. Gallois, once or twice, it is true; but it was apparent he was looking much sharper for some pretext to make us a prize himself, than for reasons to commend our conduct. Each new aspect of the affair was closely scanned, and a new conference with the adviser was held, apart. "Sair," said Mons. Gallois, "I have mosh regret, but your sheep is _bon_ prize. You have been _prisonnier_ to ze English, ze enemy of la France, and you shall not capture yourself. L'Amérique is not at war--is neutral, as you shall say, and ze Américains cannot make ze prize. I considair your ship, monsieur, as in ze hand of ze English, and shall capture him. _Mes regrets sont vifs, mais, que voulez vous_? Ze corsair most do his devoir, ze same as ze sheep _national_. I shall send you to Brest, vere, if you be not sold _par un décret_, I shall be too happy to restore _votre batiment--Allons_!" Here was a _dénouement_ to the affair, with a vengeance! I _was_ to be captured, because I _had_ been captured. "Once a corporal, always a corporal." As the English had taken me, the French would take me. A prize to-day, you must be a prize to-morrow. I have always thought the case of the Dawn was the first of the long series of wrongs that were subsequently committed on American commerce, in virtue of this same principle, a little expanded and more effectually carried out, perhaps, and which, in the end terminated by blockading all Europe, and interdicting the high seas, on paper. I knew the uselessness of remonstrating with a rapacious privateersman. "Let him send me in," I thought to myself, at first; "it is just where I wish to go; once in, the minister must get me clear. The fellow will only be the dupe of his own covetousness, and I shall profit by it, in the degree that he will be a loser!"