QUEST OF VARIETY
that he had had almost as rough a time of it as Sir Nicholas himself; but to be sure he spoke at much shorter length and appeared now and then to stop short and knit his brow as if he had forgotten what had next befallen him. And thus he began: "After that I had parted from my companion I rode onward over the level many miles till I came to a stream with high banks of yellow mud, and no bridge was to be seen, whereby I might have passed over. But presently I beheld a large boat moored to a post on the bank, and into this boat I and my horse descended. But as I would have steered it over to the other side the wind rose suddenly and caught the sails and the force of the water took the boat and drove it violently down the brook till we came into the open sea. And here again, as I strove to guide my vessel the rudder broke in pieces, and the might of wind and wave growing in violence urged us onward, and the air grew dark with the storm, so that I gave myself up for lost, and thought each moment to be overwhelmed amidst the high billows. And for three days and three nights the tempest continued; and all the while we lay in thick darkness as if it had been a continual night, so that at last I fell asleep from hunger and weariness and slept, as I believe, for many hours. For when I woke
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