"Then a murrain on the tide, say I. Twice hath the tide treated me scurvily. Once as we left the port of Cherbourg, and again off Hurst Castle, where but for the force of the current I could easily have swum ashore. Knowing that you have not betrayed me, I'll tell my mission. Hast ever heard of Nick Firestone?"
"I remember my father speaking highly of one Nicholas Firestone, who gained great and honourable distinction in the Low Countries."
"Great, I admit, but I must needs cavil at the honourable, though 'twas only when hard pressed that I had to think of a whole skin before honour. And who is thy father?"
"Sir Reginald Markham, of Ashley, in the county of Hamptonshire."
"As good and brave a knight that ever set hand on hilt. And I'll warrant his eye is as keen and his arm as strong as it was when he and I fought side by side in the retreat from Rhé. Certes! A dozen such as he and things would have gone far different in that miserable affair."
"And what of your mission?" I asked, curious to know what circumstances had caused him to swim off to our boat.
"I'll tell you. Upon my person, sealed, and proof against water, I bear despatches in cipher from the King of France, to be delivered at all costs to His Majesty, the purport being unknown to me, though I know it is of inestimable value. Another trusted messenger, bearing a duplicate, has left for Dover, and a third has sailed from Cherbourg to Fowey. The last has the better chance, seeing that Cornwall is ever devoted to His Majesty."
"True, true, Master Firestone," exclaimed Granville, speaking to him for the first time.
"Then I take it you are of Cornish stock? I rejoice to hear it, though I know not your name; but, at the same time, I would inform you that I am Colonel, and not Master, Firestone."
"And he is named Ralph Granville," I informed him. "But concerning your perilous voyage?"