It was dusk by the time the boat got back to the Etoile. Augustine Vadier, getting on board, proceeded to the cabin, where he found Bertram Gramont, the captain of the Etoile, Guillaume, Yves Obet, and Captain Pierre Gaudet, late of the Vengeance. Augustine Vadier went by a false name. None of the party in the cabin knew him only as a friend of Monsieur Gramont. “Well,” said Bertram Gramont, “where did they anchor?” “Oh, just where we suspected,” said Augustine Vadier, “off the village of Eure, and then we saw this pretended Louis Lebeau and one Pierre Eveque, one of the crew of the Ca-Ira, who has been away from his vessel these last three or four days, go on board the chasse-mare in their boat.” “Just as I expected,” said Bertram Gramont. “It is a well laid and well-planned scheme,” observed the skipper of the Etoile; “they will drop down no doubt with the ebb, and then join the Vengeance outside.” “What!” exclaimed Vadier, savagely, and fixing his one eye on the speaker, “is the lugger, the Vengeance off the coast?” “Yes, sacre voleur! it is there, sure enough; but we’ll have her again from these accursed Anglais. We intend to get under weigh presently, and wait for the coming in sight of the Ca-Ira, which is a very fast boat, and can easily beat the Etoile; but as we pass the Vengeance, now lying at anchor, the Etoile will at once put to sea and effectually cut off the Vengeance, and this Ca-Ira also.” “But how the diable did you not discover that your lugger was outside?” said Augustine Vadier; “I understood that she sailed with the brig for England.” “Ay, ay! so it was thought,” said Gaudet; “but the night before last this infernal Lieutenant Thornton, who cut out the lugger with the boats of the Onyx corvette, ran on board the privateer Belle Poule and took her by surprise, as well as her prize, the Fox schooner, and this under the nose of the battery of Grantell Point.” “Parbleu! he’s a brave officer, at all events,” said the skipper of the Etoile, “but I think he has now run out his log.” “When did you hear all this cursed intelligence?” remarked Vadier to Monsieur Gramont. “Half an hour after you left, a boat crossed over from Harfleur, with two of the crew of the Belle Poule, who were landed below the battery of Grantell; they brought the news, and their captain, Orbet, sent his boat with the intelligence to the frigate Virginie, which was luckily lying at single anchor in the roads. The commander of the Virginie is extremely anxious to recapture the Vengeance; so you see our plans are well laid. This lugger has become remarkably notorious. In fact there is quite a fever amongst the officers and men belonging to the privateers to regain possession of the Vengeance.” Shortly after this conversation the Etoile was got under weigh. The light mist still lay upon the surface of the water, but the land wind was rising, which would most likely disperse it.