One might have said that we were in a bath of quicksilver.
Near one o'clock in the morning, I was seized with dreadful fatigue.
My limbs stiffened under the strain of violent cramp.

Conseil was obliged to keep me up, and our preservation devolved on him alone.

I heard the poor boy pant; his breathing became short and hurried.

I found that he could not keep up much longer.
"Leave me! leave me!" I said to him.
"Leave my master?
Never!" replied he.

"I would drown first." Just then the moon appeared through the fringes of a thick cloud that the wind was driving to the east.