’There’s been a great deal of firing for the last hour,’ he said, his face all drawn and tired-looking, ’but it died away all of a sudden. I don’t know what to make of it—it didn’t seem to get any nearer—I’m very much afraid Gerald has surrendered or taken his chaps inland.’ He groaned, and we waited and waited—not a sound coming from shore—till it became light enough to see the land. Our eyes ached with trying to look farther than we could. Still there was no firing. This was strange, because generally at daybreak there’d been any amount of firing, as, in the dark, the people often got very close to each other, or lost themselves, without knowing it, and then fired point-blank at each other when the light showed them up. ’What _has_ happened?’ Billums groaned again. Then it was light enough for us to see where Cousin Gerald’s men had been last night—but there weren’t any ships near there—then presently, as we saw farther and farther along, the Casino showed up under the trees—still no ships near the shore. ’Look, sir! Look!’ a Yeoman of Signals, who was using the big telescope, sung out, and pulled Billums across to it. ’Hurrah!’ he shouted; ’there’s a black and green flag flying over it.’ In a minute we could see it with our own telescopes, and knew that Cousin Gerald must have recaptured it during the night. Every one ’started cheering and shouting, and woke up the Commander, who was furious, but then joined in because the Captain came up with his greatcoat over his pyjamas, and chuckled and cheered too. Well, we all stood there watching, seeing farther and farther along the shore every minute—not a sign of the ships—till we could actually see the high land at the entrance, near El Castellar, with a great cloud of smoke beyond it, out to sea. ’They’ve chucked it,’ the Captain chuckled, and we all burst out cheering. You should have seen us all there—fat Dr. Watson in his pyjamas, the Forlorn Hope and the Shadow in theirs—the Shadow shivering and his teeth chattering,—Mr. Perkins as red as a lobster, and even the Padré had come up in a nightgown, and had been in such a hurry that he’d forgotten his wig, and stood there as bald as a coot, all except a little tuft of hair that stood up by itself, and made him look like that advertisement of a hair-restorer. Nearly every one was up on the bridge. Then the church bells in San Fernando began ringing like mad, and we could hear the people, ashore, cheering. Wasn’t it grand? though nobody could imagine why the fleet had gone away. ’I expect the Provisional Government are unpacking their bags,’ the Captain said to Dr. Watson, as they went below. ’They’ll be asking for Recognition again. They ought to get it this time.’ We rushed off and told Billums what we had heard, because we knew that if the Government at home _did_ recognise the Insurgent Government, Cousin Gerald wouldn’t be punished for chipping in. We did so hope they would.