CHAPTER X.
Although we are as much averse to retrospection in a tale as our readers can be, yet to retrace our steps for a short interval is a necessity.
Edward had written highly of Lieutenant Mordaunt, but as he happens to be a personage of rather more consequence to him than young Fortescue imagined, we must be allowed to introduce him more intimately to our readers.
It was the evening after that in which Lieutenant Fortescue had so rashly encountered the storm, that a Spanish vessel, of ill-shaped bulk and of some hundred tons, was slowly pursuing her course from the coast of Guinea towards Rio Janeiro.

The sea was calm, almost motionless, compared with its previous fearful agitation.

The sailors were gaily employed in their various avocations, declaring loudly that this respite of calm was entirely owing to the interposition of St.Jago in their favour, he being the saint to whom they had last appealed during the continuance of the tempest.

Aloof from the crew, and leaning against a mast, stood one apparently very different to those by whom he was surrounded.

It was an English countenance, but embrowned almost to a swarthy hue, from continued exposure to a tropical sun.