"In any case," said her father, "he treated us with the utmost consideration. We were his guests rather than his prisoners, though indeed we were safer as the latter. He even concealed from his men my rank in His Majesty's service, which he had had from my daughter in conversation, fearing that he might not be able to protect a British Admiral, though it came near to being worse that I was an English lord. For on the approach of Admiral Lord Nelson and his fleet, when it became certain that the city must fall, the common sort among his men, who are pure brigands, announced their intention of carrying us off to the mountains, and on the pain of death to me (which would doubtless have been suggested by a present of my cars) and selling my daughter to the French, extracting a great ransom. To cut a long story short, and knowing the unbending character of yourself and Nelson, we had many conversations through my daughter, and the best that could be done for us seemed to be that he should come to you as he came, and in the event of failure should, after warning you to take possession in the shortest possible time, lock us up in the store-room where you found us, pass the key in through the window, and endeavour to frighten the baser sort of his men into flying with him, without thought of us. But he warned us, in case of accidents, not to attempt to let ourselves out until we heard the voices of the English force, and then to show a white handkerchief and parley." "So ho!" ejaculated the Captain. "Our precautions nearly cost us our liberty. The Count had become extremely attached to my daughter, and she was in such peril when these heavy guns of yours began to play on this old cockleshell--though I must say she stood fire like a man while it was being knocked to pieces over our heads--that he begged you not to fire while he was evacuating. This encouraged the brigands to steal back again as soon as they had evacuated, and search the fort. Fortunately for us they were some time in finding us, and the door was very strong." "You have forgotten, father, that he gave you back your sword and one of his two pistols before he locked us up."