Roanoke of Roanoke Hall: A Romance — page 145: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Roanoke of Roanoke Hall. 139 veying despatches from Lewis, the French king. ““You understand, of course,” he con- cluded, ‘‘ that you are now a prisoner.” “Surely, sir,” I said, ‘a country so pow- erful as France does not make war on boys.” “No, no,” he said, laughing merrily. ‘‘Your captivity shall be an easy one, but I must keep you, as much from necessity as choice. I cannot set you ashore in England, 0 you must make the best of it, and remain with me.” I may as well state here at once that this kind and honest gentleman, whose name was Monsieur Delavigne, invariably treated me with the greatest kindness and considera- tion during the whole period of our con- nection, and though at his invitation I ac- cepted the position of personal attendant on himself he always behaved to me more as if I were a friend and companion than a depend- ent. When I had enjoyed a hearty and much- needed meal in his cabin, I asked him for fur- ‘ther details of the collision and its conse- quences, hoping, I do not hesitate to own, to oO comichbooks.com