Now I must back to the cabin, for I have matters there which crave my attention."
"Nay, Sir Oliver, you had best bide with us, and still show your ensign," Sir Nigel answered; "for, if I understand the matter aright, we have but turned from one danger to the other."
"Good Master Hawtayne," cried the boatswain, rushing aft, "the water comes in upon us apace.
The waves have driven in the sail wherewith we strove to stop the hole."
As he spoke the seamen came swarming on to the poop and the forecastle to avoid the torrent which poured through the huge leak into the waist.
High above the roar of the wind and the clash of the sea rose the shrill half-human cries of the horses, as they found the water rising rapidly around them.
"Stop it from without!" cried Hawtayne, seizing the end of the wet sail with which the gap had been plugged.
"Speedily, my hearts, or we are gone!"
Swiftly they rove ropes to the corners, and then, rushing forward to the bows, they lowered them under the keel, and drew them tight in such a way that the sail should cover the outer face of the gap.
The force of the rush of water was checked by this obstacle, but it still squirted plentifully from every side of it.
At the sides the horses were above the belly, and in the centre a man from the poop could scarce touch the deck with a seven-foot spear.
The cog lay lower in the water and the waves splashed freely over the weather bulwark.
"I fear that we can scarce bide upon this tack," cried Hawtayne; "and yet the other will drive us on the rocks."
"Might we not haul down sail and wait for better times?" suggested Sir Nigel.
"Nay, we should drift upon the rocks.
Thirty years have I been on the sea, and never yet in greater straits.
Yet we are in the hands of the Saints."
"Of whom," cried Sir Oliver, "I look more particularly to St. James of Compostella, who hath already befriended us this day, and on whose feast I hereby vow that I shall eat a second carp, if he will but interpose a second time."
The wrack had thickened to seaward, and the coast was but a blurred line.
Two vague shadows in the offing showed where the galeasses rolled and tossed upon the great Atlantic rollers, Hawtayne looked wistfully in their direction.
"If they would but lie closer we might find safety, even should the cog founder.
You will bear me out with good Master Witherton of Southampton that I have done all that a shipman might.
It would be well that you should doff camail and greaves, Sir Nigel, for, by the black rood! it is like enough that we shall have to swim for it."
"Nay," said the little knight, "it would be scarce fitting that a cavalier should throw off his harness for the fear of every puff of wind and puddle of water.
I would rather that my Company should gather round me here on the poop, where we might abide together whatever God may be pleased to send.
But, certes, Master Hawtayne, for all that my sight is none of the best, it is not the first time that I have seen that headland upon the left."
The seaman shaded his eyes with his hand, and gazed earnestly through the haze and spray.
Suddenly he threw up his arms and shouted aloud in his joy.
" 'Tis the point of La Tremblade!" he cried.
"I had not thought that we were as far as Oleron.
The Gironde lies before us, and once over the bar, and under shelter of the Tour de Cordouan, all will be well with us.
Veer again, my hearts, and bring her to try with the main course!"
The sail swung round once more, and the cog, battered and torn and well-nigh water-logged, staggered in for this haven of refuge.
A bluff cape to the north and a long spit to the south marked the mouth of the noble river, with a low-lying island of silted sand in the centre, all shrouded and curtained by the spume of the breakers.
A line of broken water traced the dangerous bar, which in clear day and balmy weather has cracked the back of many a tall ship.
"There is a channel," said Hawtayne, "which was shown to me by the Prince's own pilot.
Mark yonder tree upon the bank, and see the tower which rises behind it.
If these two be held in a line, even as we hold them now, it may be done, though our ship draws two good ells more than when she put forth."
"God speed you, Master Hawtayne!" cried Sir Oliver.
"Twice have we come scathless out of peril, and now for the third time I commend me to the blessed James of Compostella, to whom I vow---- "
"Nay, nay, old friend," whispered Sir Nigel. "You are like to bring a judgment upon us with these vows, which no living man could accomplish.
Have I not already heard you vow to eat two carp in one day, and now you would venture upon a third?"
"I pray you that you will order the Company to lie down," cried Hawtayne, who had taken the tiller and was gazing ahead with a fixed eye.
"In three minutes we shall either be lost or in safety."
Archers and seamen lay flat upon the deck, waiting in stolid silence for whatever fate might come.
Hawtayne bent his weight upon the tiller, and crouched to see under the bellying sail.
Sir Oliver and Sir Nigel stood erect with hands crossed in front of the poop.
Down swooped the great cog into the narrow channel which was the portal to safety.
On either bow roared the shallow bar.
Right ahead one small lane of black swirling water marked the pilot's course.