two sailors,
thinking him asleep, joined the pilot, and sitting down beside the helm,
they began to consult together.

"You were wrong, Langlade," said Donadieu, "in choosing a craft like
this, which is either too small or else too big; in an open boat we can
never weather a storm, and without oars we can never make any way in a
calm."

"'Fore God! I had no choice. I was obliged to take what I could get,
and if it had not been the season for tunny-fishing I might not even have
got this wretched pinnace, or rather I should have had to go into the
harbour to find it, and they keep such a sharp lookout that I might well
have gone in without coming out again."

"At least it is seaworthy," said Blancard.

"Pardieu, you know what nails and planks are when they have been soaked
in sea-water for ten years. On any ordinary occasion, a man would rather
not go in her from Marseilles to the Chateau d'If, but on an occasion
like this one would willingly go round the world in a nutshell."

"Hush!" said Donadieu. The sailors listened; a distant growl was heard,
but it was so faint that only the experienced ear of a sailor could have
distinguished it.

"Yes, yes," said Langlade, "it is a warning for those who have legs or
wings to regain the homes and nests that they ought never to have left."

"Are we far from the islands?" asked Donadieu quickly.

"About a mile off."

"Steer for them."

"What for?" asked Murat, looking up.

"To put in there, sire, if we can."

"No, no," cried Murat; "I will not land except in Corsica. I will not
leave France again. Besides, the sea is calm and the wind is getting up
again--"

"Down with the sails!" shouted Donadieu. Instantly Langlade and Blancard
jumped forward to carry out the order. The sail slid down the mast and
fell in a heap in the bottom of the boat.

"What are you doing?" cried Murat. "Do you forget that I am king and
that I command you?"

"Sire," said Donadieu, "there is a king more powerful than you--God;
there is a voice which drowns yours--the voice of the tempest: let us
save your Majesty if possible, and demand nothing more of us."

Just then a flash of lightning quivered along the horizon, a clap of
thunder nearer than the first one was heard, a light foam appeared on the
surface of the water, and the boat trembled like a living thing. Murat
began to understand that danger was approaching, then he got up smiling,
threw his hat behind him, shook back his