But in this town, apparently so mean, dirty, and wretched, it was possible to watch the circulation of the life full of sap, vigour, and violence belonging to the strange inhabitants, unique in the world, who formed its heterogeneous population. The narrow gloomy streets were crowded with people of every description and colour, who came and went with a busy air. There were pothouses at the corner of all the streets and squares, perambulating dealers shouted their goods in a ropy voice, and public criers, followed by a crowd which was swelled at every step by all the idlers, announced with a mighty noise of trumpets and drums, the sale on that very day of the engagés, who had just arrived in a Company's vessel. Montbarts passed unnoticed through the crowd, and reached the door of Captain Drake's house--a rather handsome looking and cleanly kept house, which stood on the seashore at no great distance from the governor's residence. The filibuster pushed the door, which, according to the custom of the country, was not locked, and entered the house. CHAPTER XV. THE SPY. Montbarts, as we said, walked into the house. There were two persons in the first room, which was contrived a double debt to pay, as half sitting room, half kitchen. These two persons were an engagé of Captain Drake and a stranger. As for the Captain, he was absent at the moment. The filibuster's eye flashed at the sight of the stranger, and an ill-omened smile curled his pale lips. As for the latter, he was seated at a table in the middle of the room, and quietly breakfasting on a piece of cold bacon, washed down by a bottle of Bordeaux,--a wine, let us remark, parenthetically, which, though unknown in Paris till the reign of Louis XV., when the Duc de Richelieu brought it into fashion on his return from the government of Guyenne--had been for a long time appreciated in America. The stranger was of rather tall stature, with a pale face, and ascetic features, thin, bony, and angular; but his noble manners indicated a high rank in society, which rank his simple and even more than modest costume tried in vain to conceal. On the filibuster's entrance, the stranger, without raising his head, took a side-glance at him from under his long velvety eyelashes, and again became absorbed or appeared to be so, in the contemplation of the capital breakfast set before him. Everything was in common among the filibusters, everyone took from the other, whether he was at home or not, anything he wanted, arms, gunpowder, clothes or food, and the person from whom it was taken had no right to protest or make the slightest observation; this was not merely admitted and tolerated, but was regarded as a right which all took advantage of without the slightest scruple. Montbarts, after looking round the room, took a chair, seated himself unceremoniously opposite the stranger, and turning to the engagé, said-- "Bring me some breakfast--I am hungry."