thirsty-and the sword was heavy. Presently, as he went, he saw a stone
well near a cottage by the roadside. On a ledge of the well stood a
bucket of water. He tilted the bucket and drank. He would have liked to
ask for bread at the cottage-door, but he said to himself, Why should he
eat, for was he not going to die? Yet why should he not eat, even if he
were going to die? He turned his head wistfully, he was so faint with
hunger. The force driving him on, however, was greater than hunger--he
ran harder. . . . But undoubtedly the sword was heavy!




CHAPTER IV

In the Vier Marchi the French flag was flying, French troops occupied it,
French sentries guarded the five streets entering into it. Rullecour,
the French adventurer, held the Lieutenant-Governor of the isle captive
in the Cohue Royale; and by threats of fire and pillage thought to force
capitulation. For his final argument he took the Governor to the
doorway, and showed him two hundred soldiers with lighted torches ready
to fire the town.

When the French soldiers first entered the Vier Marchi there was Dormy
Jamais on the roof of the Cohue Royale, calmly munching his bread. When
he saw Rullecour and the Governor appear, he chuckled to himself, and
said, in Jersey patois: "I vaut mux alouonyi l'bras que l'co," which is
to say: It is better to stretch the arm than the neck. The Governor
would have done more wisely, he thought, to believe the poor beganne, and
to have risen earlier. Dormy Jamais had a poor opinion of a governor who
slept. He himself was not a governor, yet was he not always awake? He