Page:Madrid shaver's singular adventures, and wonderful escape from the Spanish Inquisition (3).pdf/18

18 prize of the captors ; the personals of the passengers are inviolate.-Generous nation ! exclaimed Don Manuel, how greatly have I wronged thee ! The boats of the British frigate now came alongside, and part of the crew were shifted out of the prize, an ofhcer in the stern-sheets, and the crew in their white shirts and velvet caps, also came to escort the governor and the ship’s captain on board the frigate, which lay with her sails to the mast, awaiting their arrival: who were received on the gang-way by the second lieutenant, whilst perfect silence and the strictest discipline reigned in the ship, where all were under the decks, and no inquisitive eyes were suffered to wound the feelings of the conquered. In the door of his cabin stood the captain, who received them with complaisance, which does not revolt the unfortunate by an overstrained politeness : which could not fail to impress the prisoners with the most favourable ideas; and as Don Manuel spoke French, he could converse with the British Captain without the help of an interpreter; as he expressed an impatient desire of being admitted to his parole, that he might revisit his connections, from whom he had been long separated, he was overjoyed to hear that the English ship would carry her prize into Lisbon; and that he would there be set on shore, and permitted to make the best of his way from thence to Madrid. He talked of his wife with all the ardour of the most impassioned lover, and on whom he doated with the fondest affection. The captain indulged him in these conversatians, and being a husband himself, knew how to allow for all the tenderness of