arouse his suspicions. Nevertheless, he went on rowing towards the
frigate. M. Marouin seeing him disappear in the distance, left his
brother on the beach, and bowing once more to the king, returned to the
house to calm his wife's anxieties and to take the repose of which he was
in much need.

Two hours later he was awakened. His house was to be searched in its
turn by soldiers. They searched every nook and corner without finding a
trace of the king. Just as they were getting desperate, the brother came
in; Maroum smiled at him; believing the king to be safe, but by the
new-comer's expression he saw that some fresh misfortune was in the wind.
In the first moment's respite given him by his visitors he went up to his
brother.

"Well," he said, "I hope the king is on board?"

"The king is fifty yards away, hidden in the outhouse."

"Why did he come back?"

"The fisherman pretended he was afraid of a sudden squall, and refused to
take him off to the brig."

"The scoundrel!"

The soldiers came in again.

They spent the night in fruitless searching about the house and
buildings; several times they passed within a few steps of the king, and
he could hear their threats and imprecations. At last, half an hour
before dawn, they went away. Marouin watched them go, and when they were
out of sight he ran to the king. He found him lying in a corner, a
pistol clutched in each hand. The unhappy man had been overcome by
fatigue and had fallen asleep. Marouin hesitated a moment to bring him
back to his wandering, tormented life, but there was not a minute to
lose. He woke him.

They went down to the beach at once. A morning mist lay over the sea.
They could not see anything two hundred yards ahead. They were obliged
to wait. At last the first sunbeams began to pierce this nocturnal mist.
It slowly dispersed, gliding over the sea as clouds move in the sky. The
king's hungry eye roved over the tossing waters before him, but he saw
nothing, yet he could not banish the hope that somewhere behind that
moving curtain he would find his refuge. Little by little the horizon
came into view; light wreaths of mist, like smoke, still floated about
the surface of the water, and in each of them the king thought he
recognised the white sails of his vessel. The last gradually vanished,
the sea was revealed in all its immensity, it was deserted. Not daring
to delay any longer, the ship had sailed away in the night.

"So," sai