"It means," said one, "that we are pressed to serve as soldiers.
I made a fight for it, and just as they had got the handcuffs on
some citizens came up and asked what was doing, and the sergeant
said, 'It is quite legal. We hold the mayor's warrant to impress
this man for service in the army; there is a constable here who
will tell you we are acting on authority, and if any interfere it
will be worse for them.'"

Jack heard the news in silence. So, he had been pressed by a warrant
of the mayor, he was the victim of the spite of his late employer.
But his thoughts soon turned from this by the consciousness that
his shirt and clothes were soaked with blood, and putting his hand
to the back of his head he found a great lump from which the blood
was still slowly flowing. Taking off his neck handkerchief he bound
it round his head and then lay down again. He tried to think, but
his brain was weak and confused, and he presently fell into a sound
sleep, from which he was not aroused by the arrival of another
batch of prisoners.

It was morning when he awoke, and he found that he had now nearly
twenty companions in captivity. Some were walking up and down like
caged animals, others were loudly bewailing their fate, some sat
moody and silent, while some bawled out threats of vengeance against
those they considered responsible for their captivity. A sentry
with a shouldered musket was standing at the foot of the steps,
and from time to time some sailors passed up and down. Jack went
up to one of these.

"Mate," he said, "could you let us have a few buckets of water
down here? In the first place we are parched with thirst, and in