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60 immediate action. The proposition was that Captain Gröller, as naval aide-de-camp to Maximilian, should go up to the city that night and demand the written authority of Governor Bureau to offer the immediate surrender of Vera Cruz and the castle of San Juan to General Benavides, on the single condition that the person of the Prince, alive and unharmed, should be delivered on the deck of the gun-boat "Tacony."

It was long past midnight when the English captain reached the gangway of the "Elizabeth." A short but impressive interview took place between him and the Austrian officer, and the plan of the American commander was received eagerly and with gratitude. Then while the tedious hours of the midwatch were slowly passing, another boat was lowered from the davit-heads and another captain might be seen threading his way through the reefs in the still, star-lit night, towards the invested city. This was a busy and a sleepless night for those three naval captains working to save the life of a Prince hundreds of miles away. As the "Jason's" gig pulled alongside of her own ship, the "Tacony's" boat was lying manned at the same gangway, her commander anxiously awaiting the return from the Austrian frigate. A few words were exchanged and these two officers once more separated and retired to their own beds, though not to sleep, until the return of the Austrian from Vera Cruz.