"Ay, ay; oh, yesh," was the response from the other vessel; and as it came floating down upon the wind the stranger took a broad sheer to port, showing herself to be a large lugger, and shot very neatly alongside the _Aurora_, the grappling-irons being cleverly hove into the barque's fore and main-rigging, as the two vessels touched. At the same moment some five-and-twenty Frenchmen, armed with cutlass and pistol, scrambled alertly in over the _Aurora's_ bulwarks, the leader singling out George, notwithstanding the darkness, and exclaiming, as he promptly presented a pistol at his head-- "Vat cheep dis is, eh?" "The _Aurora_, of London," was the answer, "Tres bien! My cheep, the _Belle Marie_, est un corsaire Francais, un--vat you call--privateere, et vous etes mes prisonniers. It is ze fortune of war, messieurs; my turn to-night--yours to-morrow, perhaps--ha, ha! Now, my dear sares, as there not moosh time is, permettez moi," and he flung open the companion-doors, motioning significantly to George and the mate to go below. Poor George glanced swiftly round the deck, only to see that it was in complete possession of the Frenchmen, one of whom was already at the wheel. So, turning to Mr Bowen, and murmuring, "There is no help for it, I suppose," he signed to the mate to lead the way, and then followed, dejectedly, the doors being smartly slammed-to after them, and the next moment they heard the sound of some heavy body being dragged up to and banged against the companion entrance, thus precluding the possibility of their stealing on deck again, and effecting a counter surprise. The whole thing had been done so rapidly that it was not until he found the ship being once more hove about, with her head pointing toward the French coast, that Captain Leicester fully realised his situation. In less than ten minutes his ship had been taken from him, and himself confined in his own cabin, a prisoner. Had he not been on deck at the time of the occurrence, he would certainly have considered it an avoidable misfortune, to be accounted for only by the most gross carelessness; but as it was, he was fully able to understand that it was entirely due to the extreme darkness of the night, and the circumstance of the lugger and the barque stumbling over each other, as it were. But that made matters no better for him; he had lost his ship--his all--and now there loomed before him the immediate prospect of a dreary confinement--for many years perhaps--in a French prison. The thought goaded him almost to madness, and he sprang impatiently to his feet, and began to pace moodily to and fro over the narrow limits of the cabin floor.