Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/232

 226 would rather fight for the English than against them, for I regard them as my friends and countrymen."

The English vessel was inferior in point of sailing, and thus they escaped from her. The Captain had a son with him about the age of Peter, a vain, disagreeable boy, much disliked by the officers of the ship. He came to Peter one day, in a state of intoxication, and with a drawn sword in his hand, threatened to kill him. Peter seized a sword to use in self-defence, and succeeded in disarming the drunken boy, and lowering his importance, much to the satisfaction of the by-standers.

When they reached St. Maloes, the Governor of Brest condemned the Captain very much for his misconduct in bringing a hostage with him, contrary to the law of nations, and he would not suffer Peter to be landed and placed with the other prisoners.

The poor Captain was sadly perplexed, and nothing would have pleased him so much as that Peter should run away, and thus get him out of his dilemma, and he contrived to have it whispered to Peter that he was a great fool not to make his escape. He recollected the advice given to him in his mother's letter, and very properly considered that it would be an act of great folly to leave the vessel in a foreign country, when he had every reason to expect that he would be taken home again. After remaining a while at St. Maloes, the vessel went out on another cruise, Peter still in her.