“To your paddles, it is now two o’clock and will be late before we arrive.”
The head of the canoe was immediately turned out to sea. The men plied their paddles, and the wind, which had just risen, wafted the light bark rapidly before it. Its destination, however, was incomprehensible to the fishermen, for they could not possibly conceive to what place a canoe that was thus turned out to open sea could be bound.
But whatever alarm they felt, they were obliged to conceal; for it would have been dangerous, they thought, to break the strict command of the man at the stern; and whatever they could have said or done, would have had no effect on men who seemed to be little accustomed to be crossed, and who, undoubtedly, had the power of enforcing their will.
They resigned themselves, therefore, passively to their fate: and did so with the greater readiness, as they had not, as yet, experienced, from those among whom they were so strangely thrown, any treatment which could lead them to apprehend anything horrible or atrocious.
CHAPTER II.
“—Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom in all line of order—”
Troilus and Cressida.