Turning at the top of the ladder, he gave his boatman the order to wait for half an hour, and acknowledging the sentry's salute, made his way aft, and down the companion-stairs to the cabin set apart for him.
In the passage below was a second sentry, pacing up and down; and by the Earl's door an orderly standing ready.
"Send Captain Salt to me.

After that, you may retire." The man saluted and went off on his errand, and the Earl stepped into his cabin.

The furniture of this narrow apartment consisted of a hanging-lamp, a chair or two, a chest heaped with dispatch-boxes and a swing-table upon which a map of the Low Countries was spread amid regimental lists and reports, writing materials, works on fortification, official seals and piles of papers not yet reduced to order.

Pushing aside the map and a treatise by the Marechal de Vauban that lay face downwards upon it, the Earl drew a blank sheet of paper towards him, dipped pen in ink, and after a moment's consideration scribbled a sentence.

Then, sprinkling it quickly with sand, he folded the paper, and was about to seal it, when a light tap sounded on the cabin-door.
"Come in," said the Earl quietly, holding the sealing-wax to the flame, and without troubling to turn.
The man who stood on the threshold demands a somewhat particular description.
He was tall and of an eminently graceful figure.