hastily, I turned to the princess, who had risen, and was eyeing her
somewhat awkwardly, the while wondering what kind of salutation would
be suitable in her case when a startling incident happened. The river,
as said, was full of floating rubbish brought down from some far-away
uplands by a spring freshet while the royal convoy was making slow
progress upstream and thus met it all bow on. Some of this stuff was
heavy timber, and when a sudden warning cry went up from the leading
boats it did not take my sailor instinct long to guess what was amiss.
Those in front shot side to side, those behind tried to drop back as,
bearing straight down on the royal barge, there came a log of black wood
twenty feet long and as thick as the mainmast of an old three-decker.

Hath's boat could no more escape than if it had been planted on a rocky
pedestal, garlands and curtains trailing in the water hung so heavy
on it. The gilded paddles of the slender rowers were so feeble--they
had but made a half-turn from that great javelin's road when down it
came upon them, knocking the first few pretty oarsmen head over heels
and crackling through their oars like a bull through dry maize stalks.
I sprang forward, and snatching a pole from a half-hearted slave, jammed
the end into the head of the log and bore with all my weight upon it,
diverting it a little, and thereby perhaps saving the ship herself, but
not enough. As it flashed by a branch caught upon the trailing tapestry,
hurling me to the deck, and tearing away with it all that finery.
Then the great spar, tossing half its dripping length into the air, went
plunging downstream with shreds of silk and flowers trailing from it,
and white water bubbling in its rear.

When I scrambled to my feet all was ludicrous confusion on board.
Hath still stood by his throne--an island in a sea of disorder--staring
at me; all else was chaos. The rowers and courtiers were kicking and