With the assistance of Charles Pole, our hero was conveyed into the cabin, and the surgeon proceeded to dress the wound in the head, which he pronounced to be extremely trifling; the point of the rock inflicting the wound had not caused the insensibility, but a blow against a flat rock, at the bottom of the descent. A glass or two of wine seemed to revive Lieutenant Thornton, and with his return to consciousness, he began to experience great anxiety respecting Mabel and her mother, lest they might be implicated by this untoward event. Were they all discovered? or were the men that surprised and fired upon him and Bill, only watching the movements of those in the boat? but this latter idea was discarded, for by the shouts and words of the gendarmes, they were evidently watching his own and Bill’s movements, and not the corvette’s. “In the name of fate, Sir Oscar,” said Commander O’Loughlin, as soon as he perceived his friend sufficiently restored to talk, “in the name of fate, how came you on this part of the coast? Do you know who I thought you were?” “Oh, yes, quite well, Patrick; you took me for Julian Arden,” returned our hero; “he and I have, these last four or five days, been daily watching you from Lyon Head.” “Be the powers of war! but this is very extraordinary. I was lying-to yesterday, after tracing a brig into some creek off this head, and this morning I sent young Burdett in the gig to see if he could make out the mouth of a creek or inlet of the sea I knew to be somewhere near where I picked you up; and as I was passing my glass along the cliff, I caught sight of a party of armed men, passing along the outward face of the head; the sun was glancing on their muskets and accoutrements, so I fired a gun to bring the boat back. I beheld the men disappear round the point, and shortly after, as we stood on and opened the other side, we saw the flash of their muskets, whilst pursuing you, as it turned out; so I let fly a shot to freshen their way, for I thought the fugitive might be Julian Arden. But how you came to be there with Bill Saunders, amazes me; did you escape out of prison?” “Thank God, I have not been in one since I left the Diamond; poor Sidney Smith, and young Wright, were marched off to Paris. But, my dear friend, I am in a dreadful state of anxiety; I must get ashore again to-night.” “Faith, that would be madness,” said Captain O’Loughlin; “the whole coast will be roused, and a keen watch kept for miles along the beach.” Our hero looked deeply distressed; after a moment he said— “Do you know that that infernal privateer, the Vengeance, that caused the captivity of Sir Sidney Smith, is actually at anchor within the creek you mentioned just now?” “The devil she is! then, by the powers of Moll Kelly! I’ll cut her out or burn her.”