We fared alike, toiled alike, and suffered alike, only
that the minister and I cared for Mistress Percy, asking no help
from the others.
The King's ward endured all without a murmur. She was cold, she
was worn with watching and terror, she was wounded; each
moment Death raised his arm to strike, but she sat there dauntless,
and looked him in the face with a smile upon her own. If, wearied
out, we had given up the fight, her look would have spurred us on
to wrestle with our fate to the last gasp. She sat between Sparrow
and me, and as best we might we shielded her from the drenching
seas and the icy wind. Morning had shown me the blood upon her
sleeve, and I had cut away the cloth from the white arm, and had
washed the wound with wine and bound it up. If for my fee, I
should have liked to press my lips upon the blue-veined marble,
still I did it not.
When, a week before, I had stored the boat with food and drink
and had brought it to that lonely wharf, I had thought that if at the
last my wife willed to flee I would attempt to reach the bay, and
passing out between the capes would go to the north. Given an
open boat and the tempestuous seas of November, there might be
one chance out of a hundred of our reaching Manhattan and the
Dutch, who might or might not give us refuge. She had willed to
flee, and
ILLUSTRATION
we were upon our journey, and the one chance had vanished.
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