They came on board the evening of the 21st. For two days afterwards we had a fresh north-easterly wind, which disturbed the sea very little, and would have carried us straight into Palermo. But the King would not be budged, because of the treasure which had been left behind, and the Admiral had reasons of his own for humouring him. Once on board the _Vanguard_, the Royal persons and treasure were perfectly safe, the few French of the line in the Mediterranean all being blockaded in this or the other port. But there were others who were not safe, whose peril was the outcome of the secrecy with which the Royal Family and the Court and the English in Naples had been shipped. They were as marked for destruction, when the French should enter Naples, as those now on the _Vanguard_; and the transports and ourselves, lying in the roads for two days more, gave them all the opportunity of coming on board us, or the Portuguese vessels, which were always willing enough if there was no fighting in the wind. Finally the missing treasure came on board, and the rest of the fugitives, who had been aided by the boats of the fleet and the landing of bodies of our sailors. The King displayed no concern about these unhappy persons who had to fly because they or their Governments were his sympathisers. He divided his time between play, and invocation to the Saints for weather which should at once be dead calm and have a very fine sailing breeze. To give him exactly what he desired would have needed much prayer to the saints. I must own that sometimes in the year which followed, as for instance in these two days, I was a little oppressed by the Admiral's unforgetting kindness. Having it in his head that I was such a friend of Will, he had impressed on the Captain a feeling that he desired us to be employed together as much as the ship's needs permitted. The consequence was that while other Vanguards, during these two days, were ashore, having plenty of rough-and-tumble excitement over rescuing would-be fugitives from a populace which desired that they should stay and face the music, I was kept on the ship.