It was thanks to your quickness of wit that we regained our boat, for I would not have given a ducat for our chances had you not thought of that scheme.

In the second place, we should assuredly have been overtaken again had it not been for your happy thought of crippling them by burning their sails.

By St.George, Harcourt, this young countryman of ours is as quick and as ready of wit as he has shown himself a brave and gallant fighter! We have no lack of sturdy fighters; but the wit to devise and to seize upon the right thing in the moment of danger is vastly more rare.

As for myself, I have no shame that this lad, who is young enough to be my son, should have thus, twice in a single hour, pointed out the way to safety.

With sword and battleaxe I can, I trust, hold my own with any man; but my brain is dull when it comes to hatching schemes.