came with fish to market from Church Town," was the reply.

"One of your own men engaged her," said the stranger; "and these have
grumbled long and hard enough, that they should have the ill-luck to
be pressed into this disagreeable service."

"I would you had laid your paws on some other boat. We shall ha' na'
luck after this," said the elder of the seamen. "You may hire another
now, and welcome."

But there were none at hand. The jailer, with a hearty curse at his
insolence, bade him be silent and push off.

"Hast thou gotten the memorial touching my poor services to the king?"
inquired the trenchant mayor.

"Have ye gotten the warrant safe, and the prisoner in close custody?"
inquired the clerk.

But the boat pushed from shore, and the answer was scarce heard,
mingling with the rush of the waves and the hollow wind, while the
trampling of horses and the rumbling of the coach announced the
departure of Preston's high and illustrious ruler and his learned
clerk: one to dream of swords, knights, and drawing-rooms; the other
to soar through those mystic regions, sublime and
incomprehensible--the awful, inscrutable forms, fictions, and
subtleties of law.

The boat soon gained the mid-channel. The wind was favourable, and the
tide, beginning to return, swept them rapidly down the river. The
stranger, at whose instigation this plan had been adopted, lay in the
little cabin, or rather coop, wrapped in a fisherman's coat,
apparently asleep. Derwentwater sought not repose; he sat, moody and
silent, in a deep reverie, unconscious or insensible to all but his
own dark and untoward fate.

The loud dash and furrowing of the wave, the roar of the wind, and the
cry of the boatman as he gave the soundings, were often the only
audible sounds. No one was inclined to converse, and the roll and
pitching of the boat when they approached the river's mouth made the
jailer and his friends still less willing to disturb their comrades.

After nearly four hours the lights of the little fishing hamlet of
Lytham were passed, and they were fast entering upon the open sea. The
stranger came out of the cabin, stationing himself by the steersman.
They were evidently on the look-out for signals. It was not yet
daybreak, and the wind was from the north, a bitter and a biting air,
that made the jailer's teeth to chatter as he raised himself up to
examine their course and situation as well as the darkness would
permit.

"How long run we on