and emphatically denied her ability to make the ascent. The French
boatman, shivering in a borrowed great coat, and with a vociferation
which flavoured the air with cognac, added his entreaties to those
of the mate and steward. In the small boat Conyngham, in French,
and the lady's daughter, in Spanish, represented that at least half
of the heavenly host, having intervened to save her from so great a
peril as that safely passed through, could surely accomplish this
smaller feat with ease. But the lady still hesitated, and the mate,
having clambered down into the boat, grabbed Conyngham's arm with a
large and not unkindly hand, and pushed him forcibly towards the
ladder.

'You hadn't got no business, Mr. Conyngham,' he said gruffly, 'to
leave the ship like that, and like as not you've got your death of
cold. Just you get aboard and leave these women to me. You get to
your bunk, mister, and stooard'll bring you something hot.'

There was nought but obedience in the matter, and Conyngham was soon
between the blankets, alternately shivering and burning in the first
stages of a severe chill.

The captain having come on board, the 'Granville' presently weighed
anchor, and on the bosom of an ebbing tide turned her blunt prow
towards the winter sea. The waves out there beat high, and before
the lights of Pauillac, then a mere cluster of fishers' huts, had
passed away astern, the good ship was lifting her bow with a sense
of anticipation, while her great wooden beams and knees began to
strain and creak.

During the following days, while the sense of spring and warmth