Ralph would have swum off in the direction of the sounds, but the knight restrained him.
"You can do no good, and would never find him. He has sunk by this time."
The silence of the night seemed doubly oppressive. The swell of the sea rose over the sunken rock without breaking, and the old boat rose with the heave, grinding on the sharp point which had pierced her planks, and then settled down. They could not see that the tide was rising any more, and Ralph made a couch for Magdalen with the old sail, and wrapped her up under the lee of the bows, where she was well out of the night air, and away from the water.
"It must be past high-water by now," said Sir George. "'Tis a mercy the night is quiet. I marvel where we can be?"
It was not long before Ralph, looking over the gunwale, said,--
"The tide has fallen a good bit. The rock is quite dry under her bows."
With the rapidity with which the sea had come in it now rushed out again, swirling round the rock and bubbling under the stern. In a very short time the boat was left high and dry, and Ralph got out to climb down the rocks. The mist had by this time lifted, and he was astonished to see how close they were to the shore. He could not yet make out where they were, but he thought he saw a light.
Reaching the firm sand, he walked towards the light, and on his way stumbled over what he took to be a rock. Looking down, however, he found it was a helmet, and a little further on was a breastplate. It was clear it was the armour of the men who were caught by the tide, and who had taken it off to enable them to escape by swimming.
On reaching the beach he lost sight of the light, and began to think he must have been deceived, when a gruff voice called out,--"Qui va la?"
Ralph, utterly taken aback, did not know for the moment what to do. He stood quite still looking about him. The Frenchman repeated his demand, and by the sleepy accents of other voices, combined with the clank of metal, the esquire knew there were several men encamped there, and that it was the sentry who had challenged him.