"'Did you ever see the French Emperor yourself, sir?' asked I--for I must say the thought of nearing the prison such a man was in made me a little curious. 'Never, sir, except at a mile's distance,' said the second lieutenant; 'indeed, it's hard to get a pass, unless you know the governor. But I've a notion,' continued he, 'the governor's carefulness is nothing to our skipper's! Indeed, they tell a queer story of how Sir Hudson Lowe was gulled for months together, when he was governor of Capri island, in the Mediterranean. As for the captain, again, you'd seek a long time ere you found a better seaman--he's as wide awake, too, as Nelson himself; while the curious thing is, I believe, he never once clapped eyes on Bonaparte in his life! But good cause he has to hate him, you know, Mr Westwood!' 'Indeed,' said I, taking a moment's interest in the thing; and I was just going to ask the reason, when the first lieutenant came over to say Captain Wallis would be glad if I would dine with him in the cabin.
"At dinner-time, accordingly, I put on a coat, for the first time, less like those the cadets in the _Seringapatam_ wore, and went aft, where I found the first lieutenant and a midshipman with the captain. He did his best to soften my case, as I saw by his whole manner during dinner; after which, no sooner had the reefer had his one glass of wine, than he was sent on deck to look out to windward. 'Well, sir,' said Captain Wallis thereupon, turning from his first luff to me, 'I'm sorry for this disagreeable business! I believe you deny being the person at all, though?' 'Why, sir,' said I, 'I am certainly no more the first lieutenant of the _Orestes_ than yourself, Captain Wallis! 'Twas all owing to a mistake of that India mate, who owed me a grudge.' 'Oh, oh, I see!' replied he, beginning to smile, 'the whole matter's as plain as a handspike, Mr Aldridge! But I couldn't do less, on the information.' 'However, sir,' put in the first lieutenant, 'there's no doubt the real man must have been in the ship, or the mistake could not have happened, sir!' 'Well--you look at things too square, Aldridge,' said the captain. 'All _you_'ve got to do, I hope, sir, is just to prove you're not Westwood; and if you want still to go out to the East Indies, why, I daresay you won't be long of finding some outward-bound ship or other off Jamestown. Only, I'd advise you, sir, to have your case over with Sir Pulteney, before Admiral Plampin comes in--as I fear he would send you to England.' 'It matters little to me, sir,' I answered; 'seeing the reason I had for going out happens to be done with.' Here I couldn't help the blood rising in my face; while Captain Wallis's steady eye turned off me, and I heard him say in a lower key to the lieutenant, he didn't think it was a matter for a court-martial at all. 'Pooh, Aldridge!' said he, 'some pretty girl amongst the passengers in the case, I wager!' 'Why,' returned Aldridge, carelessly, 'I heard Mr Moore say some of the ladies were pretty enough, especially one--some India judge or other's young daughter--I believe he was in raptures about, sir.' This sort of thing, as you may suppose, was like touching one on the raw with a marling-spike; when the captain asked me--partly to smooth it over, maybe--'By-the-by, sir, Mr Aldridge tells me there was something about a pirate schooner, or slaver, or some craft of the kind, that frightened your mates--that's all stuff, I daresay--but what I want to know is, in what quarter you lost sight of her, if you recollect?' 'About nor'-west by north from where we were at the time, sir,' said I. 'A fast-looking craft was she?' asked he. 'A thorough-built smooth-going clipper, if ever there was one,' I said. At this the captain mused for a little, till at last he said to his lieutenant: 'They daren't risk it; I don't think there's the Frenchman born, man enough to try such a thing by water, Aldridge?' 'Help _him_ out, you mean, sir?' said the luff; 'why, if he ever got as far as the water's edge, I'd believe in witchcraft, sir!' 'Give a man time, Mr Aldridge,' answered the captain, 'and he'll get out of anything where soldiers are concerned--every year he's boxed up sharpens him till his very mind turns like a knife, man! It makes one mad on every point besides, I tell you, sir--whereas after he's free, perhaps, it's just on _that only_ his brain has a twist in it!' 'No doubt, Captain Wallis,' said Aldridge, glancing over to me, as his commander got up and began walking about the cabin, spite of his halt.