The child had let drop the oars. He was holding with both hands to the boat’s gunwale and looking out to sea with his eyes dilated with fear.
“Help me!” he cried.
It was the little Duke Adalbert.
The boy had been kept awake the night before by the cries of “Morgana!” Confounding reality with legend, he had resolved to go to the yacht which was in the bay; and there he would see once more that beautiful maiden whom Phil had painted. He came down to the foot of the castle, and loosened the boat from the old ring in the wall to which it was fastened. Alone he set out to the open sea. They had seen him too late; the current had seized the boat, and the little duke was lost!
Just then a violent shock capsized the boat on a rock almost level with the surface and threw the child into the water. As he disappeared beneath the foam he lifted his arms to heaven with a supreme appeal: “St. Morgana, save me!”
“Adalbert, Monseigneur Adalbert!” cried Helia, recognizing him, “fear nothing, I am here!”
It was the affair of a moment, and with a daring dive, in which she risked dashing herself against a rock, Helia grasped the boy beneath the waves and brought him back, fainting, to the light of day.
“What anxiety they must be having on shore!” thought Helia. “What must be the duke’s despair! They must think the child is drowned, that there is no possible remedy; perhaps there is not a single boat in the port! Now, then, Helia, courage! You’ve done harder things than this in your life. Into the sea and take back monseigneur!”
Helia was standing on the rock, with the boy in her arms. At a glance, she saw that the water of the different currents was colored differently. That which came from the shore was muddy and yellow with sand; that from the deep sea was dark green. Into this, without hesitation, Helia threw herself, holding Adalbert on one arm, and swimming with the other, in superb effort.
As soon as she had turned the cliff, she saw the crowd on the shore, close to the water, very far away. They, too, now saw her, for a great cry reached her ear. It strengthened and comforted her.