“’Tis a mercy to be past them, anyhow,” said he. “But see, for all our turning of the helm, we are driving down the wind.”
So indeed we were. To our dismay, the Gerona sailed almost as far sideways as she did forward; and, had we not been well out to seaward to start with, we might have been hard put to it even to clear the headlands of Innishowen.
About midnight there was nothing for it but to order the sails to be let go, and depend only on the oars for our course. After that, for a while, we went better. But the men, worn-out and dispirited, pulled with but half a heart; and hour by hour the vessel drifted in, until it was clear that nothing but a shifting of the wind or standing to at anchor could keep us off the opposite rocks.
Off Innishowen, as we crossed the mouth of the Foyle river, we fell on a shoal of terrible shallows, which spun the Gerona round like a top, and washed her in raging foam from stem to stern.
“Go and tell the Don he must either let go his anchors, or double the men at the oars,” said Ludar, when presently we had staggered out again into blacker water.
Word was given immediately to try the former, and the only two anchors we had were let over. For a moment or two, as the ship swung round, creaking in every joint, it seemed as if she would ride out the gale thus. But with a report like the crack of a gun, first one, then the other of her cables broke short at the gunwale, and we knew we had only lost time and water in the attempt.
Instantly the Don called upon his nobles to volunteer for the oars. Gallantly they responded; and occupied the after benches, while all the slaves rowed forward. Then, for an hour, the Gerona seemed to hold her own, and reeled across the bay on an eastward course.
But, presently, even the lordlings of Spain flagged, and once again we drove in, amid the thunder of surf, on an ever nearing shore.
“We should be near the Bann mouth,” said I. “To think of the last time we heard that thunder together!”
“We are clear of that,” said Ludar, quietly. “Tell the Don his lordlings must work harder if we are to weather the next point.”