"You have done about enough for one day. Oh, you will soon be well now; no fear! And you may count yourself fortunate, not to have been much worse. Yours has been a slight attack, compared with what many people have." "I don't call it slight. I call it a most beastly horrid illness. Den, when shall we go home? I want Molly." Denham took a seat by his side. "I am not sure. It may not be just yet." "Why not? I thought we were going as soon as ever we could." "As soon as possible; yes. The question is, how soon that will be. Some of us are not able to go yet; but I am hoping that your father will send you home, and not let you wait for him and me." "Why, Den?" Roy twisted round to gaze in astonishment. "Why, Den! I thought you were all waiting, only just till I should get over this. I didn't know there was anything else. Is there anything else? Has something happened? Do tell me." "You and your mother are free to go back to England, as soon as she is willing to do so. Your father and I are not free." "Aren't you? Why not? What is the matter with papa?" "Nothing is the matter with him, so far as health is concerned. Only, he is not free and I am not free. We are both prisoners." Roy's large grey eyes grew bigger and rounder. "Den! Why--Den--what can you mean? Prisoners! You and papa prisoners! Why, you haven't been fighting." "No, we have not been fighting. We ought not to be prisoners. Such a thing has never happened before, in any war between civilised countries. But war has been declared, as you know was expected before you were taken ill. And one of the first things that Napoleon did, directly war broke out, was to make all English travellers prisoners of war." Roy clenched his fist. "He professes to have had provocation. There were French vessels in our ports, and these were seized, as soon as our Ambassador had been ordered to return home. But that was in accordance with a very old custom--centuries old. Napoleon's act of reprisal is altogether new. It is a thing unheard of--making war on travellers and peaceful residents; a disgrace to himself and his nation. You know what is meant by 'reprisals' in war. This is his 'reprisal' for the vessels seized. Every Englishman in France, or in any country under Napoleon's sway at this moment, is declared to be a prisoner." "Then I'm a prisoner too." "You are under age. Some boys of your age have been arrested, I believe, but only because they hold His Majesty's Commission in the Navy. Otherwise, under eighteen you are free." "But you are not in prison." "I am on parole. I have given my word of honour not to try to get away." "Then you mustn't escape, even if you can?" "No. If I had refused to give my parole, I should have been at once sent to prison--probably have been thrown into a dungeon." The boy was as white as a sheet. "And papa----?" "Has given his parole also." "And--mamma?"