niving at the escape of a French officer the day previous, and now his neck was in danger for having very properly tried to save it on that previous day.
But action, action! Whatever came of it, he must appear a patriotic burgomaster; so he took his night-cap off, and, in spite of the energetic remonstrances of the burgomaster's lady, was soon down in the street, surrounded by half a dozen men, and making for Bertha's eventful little mansion
Within which was passing a terrible scene.
The fact is, that, when the false Daniel arrived at the fleet and reported himself, he found that he had escaped with only part of himself, and rather wanted the rest; and as at that time the French navy was allowed a liberty which it has not now, the young officer laid a statement of the whole case before his commander. That daring personage thus recommended:—A French boat to start away for shore with this young officer, and several more in her; that it should touch near Bertha's house; that Bertha should receive the merest hint, and then take passage for the French fleet herself.
The French officer, attended by half-a-dozen more youths, came back to the shore, and, just as day was peeping, came up to the little right-hand window; and as no one answered his tap, he raised the sash and jumped lightly in.
This Jodoque saw and reported to the burgomaster; but he could not tell the remainder.
For Daniel, waked by the tapping on the window-pane, saw who it was, and believing that he had come to steal his wife from him, he clenched his fists, and, as the slim young man jumped down into the room, crushed him almost dead in his strong arms.
"Not a word, or I'll stifle you!"
"Daniel! Daniel!"
"Not a word,—and don't Daniel me, you thief!"
"Thief?"
"Don't speak loud."
"How thief?"
"You would steal my wife from me."
"How your wife?"
"Why, Bertha;—she promised to marry me six long years ago, and she would have married me, if you had not come and stolen her heart."
"Why, you yourself gave her to me!"
"Ah! I owed you a debt I had to pay. 'Tis paid now. I thought you gone, and the marriage knocked on the head; but now, you've come back, and won't go again!"
"But, Daniel"
"Don't Daniel me, I say, and don't speak loud; at least, she sha'n't see you taken off. Lie quiet for her sake, and show your love for her that way."
"And so you'll give me up, old friend, whose life I saved?"
"Saved!—you saved it once, and I saved yours. You took away my hope when you robbed me of my wife;—now I give you a like return."
"And you yourself, Daniel, who harbored me yesterday"
"That's nothing to you.—Lie still till some one passes."
For the strong sailor had tipped the officer on to the mattress. There he lay,—not from want of courage, but because he did not know what to do.
The sailor felt for his pipe, but he remembered that all the tobacco was smoked up; so he set the pipe down again and bit his nails.
He had not waited a quarter of an hour when a voice said,—"This way, Herr Burgomaster!—this way!"
The sailor and his prisoner both started to their feet; and the burgomaster, coming to the open window, lost the last faint hopes he had had that this said French officer might not, after all, be the French officer at whose escape he, the respected burgomaster and butcher, had assisted.
"Mr. Burgomaster, here is a French prisoner,—and I hand him to you as the fit personage to place him in the hands of the commander."
Thus spoke Daniel, and, as he spoke, Bertha appeared at the door of her room,
