inside, and the efforts to force a passage, now
warned me of my danger, and I fled at the very top of my speed, not
knowing nor caring whither. I had gone considerably above a mile ere
I ventured to halt and draw breath. I was in a part of the city with
narrow streets and tall warehouses, dark, gloomy, and solitary; a small,
mean-looking alley led me down to the river's side, from which I could
perceive the Tower quite close, and a crowd of shipping in the stream.
A small schooner, with a foresail alone set, was just getting under way,
and as she slowly moved along, boats came and went from the shore to
her.

"Want to go aboard, sir?" asked a waterman, who observed me as I stood
watching the movement of the craft. I nodded, and the next moment we
were alongside. I asked for the skipper, and heard that he was to join
us at Gravesend. The mate politely said I might go below; and, accepting
the permission, I descended to the cabin, and lay down on a bench. A boy
was cleaning plates and glasses in a little nook at one side, and from
him I learned that the schooner was the "Martha," of Hull, bound for
Cherbourg; her captain was her owner, and usually traded between the
English coast and the Channel Islands. At all events, thought I, I am
safe out of England; and with that reflection I turned on my side and
went off to sleep.

Just as day broke, the skipper came on board, and I could perceive, by
the gushing noise beside my ear, that we were going fast through the
water. The craft lay over, too, and seemed as if under a press of
canvas. It was not for full an hour afterwards that the skipper
descended to the cabin, and, shaking me roughly by the shoulder, asked
how I came there.

I had gone asleep concocting a story to account for my presence; and so
I told him in a few words that I had just been engaged in a duel wherein
I had wounded my antagonist; that as the event had occurred suddenly,
I had no time for any preparation, but just threw myself on board the
first craft about to sail, ready and willing to pay liberally for the
succor it afforded me.

Either he disbelieved my narrative, or fancied that it might involve
himself in some trouble, for he doggedly said I had no right to come
aboard of her without his leave, and that he should certainly put in at
Ramsgate and hand me over to the authorities.

"Be it so," said I, with an affected indifference. "The greater fool you
not to earn fifty guineas for a kind office