The log indicated moderate speed, the manometer a depth of about sixty feet.

I returned to my room, clothed myself warmly--sea boots,
an otterskin cap, a great coat of byssus, lined with sealskin;
I was ready, I was waiting. The vibration of the screw
alone broke the deep silence which reigned on board.
I listened attentively. Would no loud voice suddenly inform
me that Ned Land had been surprised in his projected flight.
A mortal dread hung over me, and I vainly tried to regain
my accustomed coolness.

At a few minutes to nine, I put my ear to the Captain's door.
No noise. I left my room and returned to the saloon, which was half
in obscurity, but deserted.

I opened the door communicating with the library.
The same insufficient light, the same solitude.
I placed myself near the door leading to the central staircase,
and there waited for Ned Land's signal.

At that moment the trembling of the screw sensibly diminished,
then it stopped entirely. The silence was now only disturbed
by the beatings of my own heart. Suddenly a slight shock was felt;
and I knew that the Nautilus had stopped at the bottom of the ocean.
My uneasiness increased. The Canadian's signal did not come.
I felt inclined to join Ned Land and beg of him to put off his attempt.
I felt that we were not sailing under our usual conditions.

At this moment the door of the large saloon opened, and Captain
Nemo appeared. He saw me, and without further preamble began
in an amiable tone of voice:

"Ah, sir! I have been looking for you. Do you know the history of Spain?"

Now, one might know the history of one's own country by heart;
but in the condition I was at the time, with troubled mind
and head quite lost, I could not have said a word of it.

"Well," continued Captain Nemo, "you heard my question!
Do you know the history of Spain?"

"Very slightly," I answered.

"Well, here are learned men having to learn," said the Captain.
"Come, sit down, and I will tell you a curious episode in this history.
Sir, listen well," said he; "this history will interest you on one side,
for it will answer a question which doubtless you have not been
able to solve."

"I listen, Captain," said I, not knowing what my interlocutor was driving at,
and asking myself if this incident was bearing on our projected flight.

"Sir, if you have no objection, we will go back to 1702. You cannot
be ignorant that your king, Louis XIV, thinking that the gesture
of a potentate was sufficient to bring the Pyrenees under his yoke,
had imposed the Duke of Anjou, his grandson, on the Spaniards.
This prince reigned more or less badly under the name of Philip V,
and had a strong party against him abroad. Indeed, the preceding year,
the royal houses of Holland, Austria, and England had concluded
a treaty of alliance at the Hague, with the intention of plucking
the crown of Spain from the head of Philip V, and placing it
on that of an archduke to whom they prematurely gave the title
of Charles III.

"Spain must resist this coalition; but she was almost entirely unprovided
with either soldiers or sailors. However, money would not fail them,
provided that their galleons, laden with gold and silver from America,
once entered their ports. And about the end of 1702 they expected a rich
convoy which France was escorting with a fleet of twenty-three vessels,
commanded by Admiral Chateau-Renaud, for the ships of the coalition
were already beating the Atlantic. This convoy was to go to Cadiz,
but the Admiral, hearing that an English fleet was cruising in those waters,
resolved to make for a French port.

"The Spanish commanders of the convoy objected to this decision.
They wanted to be taken to a Spanish port, and, if not to Cadiz,
into Vigo Bay, situated on the northwest coast of Spain,
and which was not blocked.

"Admiral Chateau-Renaud had the rashness to obey this injunction,
and the galleons entered Vigo Bay.

"Unfortunately, it formed an open road which could not be
defended in any way. They must therefore hasten to unload
the galleons before the arrival of the combined fleet;
and time would not have failed them had not a miserable question
of rivalry suddenly arisen.

"You are following the chain of events?" asked Captain Nemo.

"Perfectly," said I, not knowing the end proposed by this historical lesson.

"I will continue. This is what passed. The merchants of Cadiz had
a privilege by which they had the right of receiving all merchandise
coming from the West Indies. Now, to disembark these ingots at the port
of Vigo was depriving them of their rights. They complained at Madrid,
and obtained the consent of the weak-minded Philip that the convoy,
without discharging its cargo, should remain sequestered in the roads
of Vigo until the enemy had disappeared.



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