d, I fancy, not object to my marrying her; and, as she has no
parents whose leave she need ask, I had an idea there would be no
difficulty; but, somehow or other, there is. She says that she cannot
make up her mind--that she had not thought of marrying--that she cannot
leave Mistress Aveline or Lady Anne--in truth, she, against all my
expectations, will not do as I ask her. My only hope is that the jade
may change her mind when we land on the shores of Old England."

"We are not in sight of them yet, A'Dale," I answered. "I thank you for
your congratulations, but remember the old proverb, `There's many a slip
between the cup and the lip.' We must not be too sanguine."

I said this in joke, not thinking at the time, so buoyed up was I with
hope, that there was any risk of the saying coming true. That evening,
the wind, which had been light all day, shifted, and blew directly in
our teeth, driving us back again towards the coast of Flanders. All
night long we lay closely hugging the wind, in the hopes of again
working our way off shore. When morning broke, a man went to the
mast-head, to look out and ascertain whether the coast was in sight. He
had not been long there when he shouted out:

"Several sail of ships to the southward, standing towards us."

The announcement was alarming. They could scarcely be friends, and if
they were Spaniards or Flemings in the service of Alva, we were likely
to be sufferers. We announced the fact to our consorts, who had,
indeed, discovered the same themselves. The wind having somewhat
fallen, the captains of the other ships came on board; and it was
agreed, in order that we might have a better chance of escaping, that we
should steer in different directions. Thus the enemy would probably,
not wishing themselves to separate, steer after only one of us. With
earnest prayers that we might all providentially escape, our friends
returned to their vessels; we continuing to steer as before to the west,
while they stood away on the opposite tack. The plan seemed to be
giving our friends a chance of escaping, though we judged, from the way
the strange ships were sailing, that they were standing towards us. As,
however, the _Falcon_ was a fast ship, we still hoped to distance them.

Our hopes soon appeared likely to be vain. As the sun rose we saw the
strangers had gained upon us--the wind apparently favouring them more
than it did us. It had again begun to fall, and in a short