ather chapfallen, "your condescension is a lesson for
angels. When the planet deigns to shine into the humble pool, shall the
star not do the same? I will even abide at your side, and be gracious
too."

But his brave intention was thwarted. For a call came just then from
the old nurse, which carried the maiden off to her side; while Ludar and
I, receiving a summons from the captain, went forward, and so left the
poet to his own devices.

A sterner summons was not far off, as you shall hear.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

HOW THE MISERICORDE CHANGED HER CREW.

We were, I reckon, somewhere off the Yorkshire coast; for we had been
sailing a week, for the most part against foul winds. To-night, as I
said, the light breeze had backed to the south and was sending us
forward quietly at some six or seven knots an hour. All seemed to
promise a speedy end to our voyage; and yet, as I stood there, drinking
in the beauty of the evening, and rejoicing in my recovered strength, I
would as soon we had been bound on a voyage ten times as long.

I was standing idly near the foremast. On the high poop behind sat the
maiden, singing beside her old nurse, who, like me, was enjoying the air
for the first time to-night. Ludar lolled near me, on a coil of rope,
watching the sun dip as he listened to the singing, and betwixt whiles
unravelling the tangles of a fishing line. On the forecastle, the
French seamen sat and whispered, scowling sometimes our way, and
sometimes laughing at the poet who strutted near them, intent on the
sunset and big with some notable verses thereupon, which were hatching
in his brain. An English fellow was at the helm, half asleep; while the
captain, grumbling at the slackness of the breeze, paced to and fro,
with an oath betwixt his lips and an ugly frown on his brow.

Suddenly I seemed to detect among the Frenchmen a stir, as if something
had just been said or resolved upon in their whisperings. The captain
at that instant was near them, turning in his walk; when, without
warning, two of their number sprang out upon him. There was a shout, a
struggle, the gleam of a knife, and then a dead man lay on the deck.
All was so quick and sudden that the murder was done under my very eyes
before I knew what was happening. Then, in a twinkling, the whole ship
became the scene of a deadly fight. Three of the traitors threw
themselves on Ludar; the poet reeled in the grip of another; two others
made for me.

"Bac