Before I recovered the surprise of this information we reached the stairs. On the Quarter deck was Alice with the boy. 'You dear good woman,' Jenny cried. 'You are come to see the last of the transported convict: the end of the Orange Girl!' Yet beside my wife in her homely dress, Jenny looked like a Countess. Alice kissed her. 'We are not going to leave you, Jenny. We are going with you, your servants as long as we live.' CHAPTER XXVI THE LAST TEMPTATION 'We are waiting,' said the Captain, 'for our passengers.' While he spoke there came alongside the ship a dozen boats or more laden with the passengers for whose sake the good ship was about to cross the Atlantic. There were, I remember--it is not possible for me to forget anything that happened on this voyage--one hundred and eight of them who came on board, men and women. They were brought down from Blackfriars Stairs in a closed lighter. 'Jenny,' I said, 'go into the cabin. Do not look at them.' 'Why, Will, I ought to be among them. I am one of them. Suffer me to look at my brothers and sisters in misfortune.' Of these poor wretches we had seen the greater part already in Newgate. Within those walls: in the bad air; among those companions; where everything was sordid and wretched; they did not present an appearance so horrible as they did in the open air; on the bright river; in the sunshine; under the flying clouds; among the sailors; where everything spoke of freedom. The pallor of their faces; their wretched rags blowing about in the breeze; their pinched faces; the unnatural brightness of their eyes; their tottering limbs; their meek submissiveness to order; proclaimed their long detention in prison while they were waiting for the ship. As they climbed up the companion painfully; as they stepped down upon the deck; as they stood huddled together like sheep, my heart sank within me for thinking that Jenny, too, was reckoned as one of these. I glanced at her; she was thinking the same thing; her cheek was aflame; her eyes, glowed; her lips trembled. 'Will,' said she; 'we are a proper company. Virginia will welcome us.' They brought with them--faugh! the prison reek and stench. But we saw them for a few moments only. Then they were bundled down below to their own quarters and we saw the poor creatures no more.