I dragged the King back--he was like a log now--till he lay with the middle of his body under the seat on which I sat; his face looked up from between my feet.

Then I fell to rowing, choosing no course except that our way should be from the ship, and ready, at any movement of the still form below me, to drop my sculls and set my pistol at his head.

Yet till that need came I bent lustily to my work, and when I looked over the sea the ship was not to be seen, but all around hung the white vapour, the friendly accomplice of my enterprise.
That leap of his was a gallant thing.

He knew that I was his master in strength, and that I stood where no motive of prudence could reach and no fear restrain me.

If I were caught, the grave or a French prison would be my fate; to get clear off, he might suppose that I should count even the most august life in Christendom well taken.