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Saint Aubyn having twice or thrice made mention of the Lady Alicia and her presence on the beach, this Sir Nicholas looked up at me sharply, and said he "By all accounts this lady was a passenger shipped by the master at Dunquerque. It seems she was a foreign lady of birth, bearing letters commendatory to the Court of Lisbon." "That was his story of it," Master Porson assented.
We had no more visits from the French, not even from Captain Gualtiere, and we saw no more of old Jonas Uggleston. He had settled in Dunquerque, he told his son in his letters, and these always contained the advice that he was on no account to leave the service of Captain Duncan, but to do his duty by him as an honest man.
Yet I heard something of the mayor's accusation; which was that the woman had come to Dunquerque, travelling as a great lady with a retinue of servants and letters of commendation to the religious houses, on which and on many private persons of note she had bestowed relics of our Lord and the saints, pretending it was for a penance that she journeyed and gave the bounties: but that, at a certain hour, these relics had turned into toads, adders, and all manner of abominable offal, defiling the holy places and private shrines, in some instances the very church altars: that upon the outcry her retinue had vanished, and she herself taken to flight as we saw her running.
Come, sir, I received information about a very valuable contraband cargo that has been run from Dunquerque. It has been landed here successfully during the past night or the night before. Now, sir, if you please, where was that cargo landed?"
Cut short in this and asked concerning the lady, he shrugged his shoulders and replied with an oath he knew nothing about her beyond this, that she had taken passage with him at Dunquerque for Lisbon, paying him beforehand and bearing him a letter from the Bishop of Cambrai, which conveyed to him that she was bound on some secret mission of politics to the Court of Lisbon.
"The tall man with the chain cried out that he was mayor or provost I forget which and the woman must be given up as a proved witch who had laid the wickedest spells upon many citizens of Dunquerque. All this he had to shout; for Affonzo, who either ignorantly or by choice was already on Satan's side, would not suffer him to come aboard or even nigh the ship's ladder.
Before the company had decided the delicate point Inglewood was already reading the account in question. It was in French. It seemed to them to run something like this: "Sir, Yes; I am Durobin of Durobin's Cafe on the sea-front at Gras, rather north of Dunquerque. I am willing to write all I know of the stranger out of the sea. "I have no sympathy with eccentrics or poets.
The mob at Dunquerque pursued me upon a ridiculous charge, yet was wisely incited by men who invented it, knowing the true purpose of my mission." She glanced from the Commissioner to Master Porson. "Sir Nicholas Fleming surely I have heard his name spoken, as of a good friend to the Holy Father and not too anxious for the Emperor's marriage with Mary Tudor?"
You will be despatched to watch the port of Dunquerque, to stop the boat that is supposed to come to land from this coast on the king's business." "I suppose you mean the Pretender's business," cried Hilary quickly. "I mean His Majesty Charles Edward," said the man, "to whom I wish you to take these papers." And he pulled a packet from his pocket. "I? Take papers? What do you suppose I am?"
As he proffered his sheathed sword he introduced himself as Monsieur Jules Despard, chief mate of the French privateer brigantine Audacieuse, of Dunquerque, mounting sixteen long 18-pounders, and a long 32-pounder on her forecastle, and originally carrying a crew of one hundred and fifty-six men, of whom twenty-five were away in the Indiaman that had vanished in the southern board, while twelve more were aboard one of the vessels of which the gun-brigs were in chase.
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