neath me was
still the _Blanche_, which timber by timber I had seen built up upon the
shores of Thames from oaks cut in my own woods.

As soon as I was strong enough, I went over the ship, or what was left
of her. It was a marvel that she had floated for so long, since her hull
was shattered. Indeed, I do not think she could have done so, save for
the fine wool that was packed into the lower part of her, which wool
seemed to have swollen when it grew wet and to have kept the water out.
For the rest she was but a hulk, since both her masts were gone, and
much of the deck with them. Still she had kept afloat and driving into
this creek, had beached herself upon the mud as though it were the
harbour that she sought.

How had we lived through such a journey? The answer seemed to be, after
we were too weak to find or take food, by means of the drug that Kari
cherished in his skin bag, and water of which there was plenty left at
hand in barrels, since the _Blanche_ had been provisioned for a long
voyage to Italy and farther. At least we had lived for weeks, and weeks,
being still young and very strong, and not having been called upon
to suffer great cold, since it would appear that although the gale
continued after the first few days of our flight before it, the weather
had turned warm.

During this time of my recovery, every morning Kari would go ashore,
which he did by means of planks set upon the mud, since we were within
a few feet of the bank of the creek into which a streamlet ran. Later
he would return, bringing with him fish and wildfowl, and corn of a
sort that I did not know, for its grains were a dozen times the size of
wheat, flat-sided, and if ripe, of a yellow colour, which he said he
had purchased from those who dwelt upon the land. On this good food
I feasted, washing it down with ale and wine from the ship's stores;
indeed never before did I eat so much, not even when I was a boy.

At length, one morning Kari made me put on my armour, the same which I
had taken from the French knight, and fled in from London, that he had
burnished till it shone like silver, and seat myself in a chair upon
what remained of the poop of the ship. When I asked him why, he answered
in order that he might show me to the inhabitants of that land. In this
chair he bade me sit and wait, holding the shield upon my arm and the
bare sword in my right hand.

As I had come to know that Kari never did anything without a reason and
rem