The work was hard; but as the slaves were not pressed to any extraordinary exertions, Gervaise did not find it excessive.

He congratulated himself, however, that the stain was, as he had been assured, indelible, save by time, for after a few minutes' exercise he was bathed in perspiration.

As the galley had been taken out only that instruction might be given to the young knights, the work was frequently broken.
Sometimes they went ahead at full speed for a few hundred yards, as if to chase an adversary; then they would swerve aside, the slaves on one side rowing, while those on the other backed, so as to make a rapid turn.

Then she lay for a minute or two immovable, and then backed water, or turned to avoid the attack of an imaginary foe.

Then for an hour she lay quiet, while the knights, divesting themselves of their mantles and armour, worked one of the guns on the poop, aiming at a floating barrel moored for the purpose a mile out at sea.