112 TRAVEL, ADVENTUEE, AND SPORT. 



verts everything to its own substance, and the 

 prisoners were now only the more certain that their 

 hour was come. 



But the morning dawned, and they perceived that 

 the privateer was rapidly sailing down the river. 

 This was fresh food for anxiety. The new conjec- 

 ture was that, to avoid the eclat of an execution 

 close to the city, they were to be conveyed to some 

 remote corner of the river, and there drowned. At 

 midnight, the vessel suddenly came to an anchor. 

 The hour seemed now inevitable. They were 

 leagues from the city. At this moment, an order 

 was heard for six of the prisoners by name to come 

 upon deck. This was looked on as clearly the com- 

 mencement of the execution. The six took leave of 

 their compatriots, as going to death. Six more were 

 soon after called up. They looked round the deck 

 for those who had preceded them ; but they were 

 not to be seen. The natural conclusion was drawn 

 " they were murdered !" The successive groups were 

 ordered over the ship's side into boats, and the boats 

 rowed towards the river's mouth. This was, of 

 course, but another mode of the drowning system. 

 The ocean was to be the depository of the secret. 

 Suspense had exerted her last torture on them ; 

 when at length they reached a ship-of-war lying off 

 the river. Here they found their fellow-prisoners ; 

 and the manners of the captain, which had more of 

 the sailor, and less of the patriot, than they had 



