i foolishly went to the trouble to get these , first , '' showing laurence a folded packet of papers , `` from the port admiral , in the assumption he would know the whereabouts of the prisoner he was assigning to me , but he left me in the hall two hours , and quarreled with me another , and only when i had his signature did he at last confess to having not the least knowledge where you were , with the harbor on fire . ''