"You are wounded, I see!" Julie exclaimed.
"Oh, it is only a flesh wound," he said; "a splinter struck me in the shoulder; a bandage will set that all right in a day or two. I wish that none of my men had worse wounds."
The frigate returned in an hour with the second gunboat, which, seeing escape impossible and resistance useless, had lowered her ensign as soon as the Tartar opened fire upon her. When the Tartar came alongside, the captain hailed the schooner, and told Peter to come on board.
"There is not a boat that can swim either on board us or the gunboat, sir."
"Very well, then, I will come to you and bring the doctor with me. I am afraid that you have a heavy list of casualties."
"I am sorry to say that we have, sir, and the Frenchmen have three times as many."
The captain was at once rowed on board with the surgeon. The latter immediately set to work to attend to the wounded, while the captain learned from Peter the events that had taken place.
"I congratulate you heartily, Mr. Vignerolles," he said when he heard the story, "and I am glad indeed that you succeeded in rescuing the ladies. You say you had no one killed in doing so?"
"No, sir; there was only one man seriously hurt."
"Well, of course, you must report that affair as well as the fight, but I should cut that part of the business as short as possible, and merely say that you landed a party and rescued the Baroness de Vignerolles and her daughters from the hands of a mob from Marseilles, and brought them on board without any loss of life among your party, but with a very heavy loss to the mob. Of course we have general orders to give shelter to Royalists trying to make their escape from France, but the Admiralty might not perhaps approve of quite such a dangerous expedition as that you undertook. I will send a couple of boatloads of men on board to help your fellows to repair the damages to the schooner and her prize. It is clear that you must go down to Gibraltar for repairs. I will man both the prizes and send them down with you; and even if you come across a couple of French privateers, they will hardly venture to attack you."