It was a small room that he entered, and contained three or four fishermen, and one whom a certain superiority in dress betokened to be the captain of a vessel.

They were talking of the war, and of the probability of the Scottish army taking part in it.

The fishermen were all of the popular party; but the captain, who seemed a jovial fellow, shrugged his shoulders over the religious squabbles, and said that, for his part, he wanted nothing but peace.
"Not," he said, "that the present times do not suit are rarely in purse.

Men are too busy now to look after the doings of every lugger that passes along the coast, and never were French goods so plentiful or so cheap.

Moreover," he said, "I find that not unfrequently passengers want to be carried to Prance or Holland.