"It is myself, I admit, Monseigneur," said the squire.
"How came you to slip, bungler?" asked Gabriel.
"It was much better that it should have happened to me than to another," said Martin.
"Why?"
"Because anybody else would have made an outcry," replied Martin.
"Well, since you are here," said Gabriel, "help me pass this rope around that great root. I very foolishly sent Anselme ahead with the others."
"The root will not hold, Monseigneur," said Martin: "the least shock will pull it up, and the boat will be destroyed and we shall be carried away with it."
"There is nothing else to be done," rejoined Gabriel; "so let us set about it without more ado."
When they had made the boat fast as well as they could, Gabriel said to his squire,—
"Come, up with you!"