So resting there we passed a quiet week, and then one day as I wandered on the town quay, watching the vessels alongside, the remembrance of Cork was brought back to me by the walk and bearing of a man who was boarding a small trading buss. His back was towards me, and he seemed to be a seaman altogether, but, I suppose because the thought of Cork was always unpleasant to me, I asked who yon man might be, and was told that he was master of the buss, and given his name also. So I was somewhat angry with myself for letting such a ruffian as my former acquaintance trouble my mind at all, and thought no more of him.
That evening I went in attendance on De Brezè beyond the town to the house of a friend of the cause, in order to learn whether there were any better tidings for the Queen from Edinburgh. There were none, and we walked back to the town by the same roads we had passed in going, which is a thing that an outlaw learns not to do, for plain reasons enough. It was not very dark, and the road was not lonely as we came near the town, for two men struck it from a by-path, and remained some fifty yards behind us, talking and laughing freely, so that we thought them lively company.
Just where the street down which we passed comes to the quay it grows narrow, and at the corner house three men were quarrelling in a half-drunken sort of way. However, they stumbled aside as we came near them, and lest I should oblige my leader to pass too close to them, I dropped back a pace or two, and we went quickly. Then one of the men seemed to push another, and sent him falling right across de Brezè's feet, causing him to stumble heavily. I sprang forward to save him from the fall, and in a moment was down also, with the weight of several men on me. The two men had run up from behind us and had thrown me. I shouted, and tried to reach my dagger, but I was pinioned and gagged quickly, and De Brezè was being treated in the same way.
Then the men set us on our feet, and the first man my eyes lit on was Cork himself. He did not know me because half my face was covered with a thick cloth, and besides that I no longer wore the wild hair and beard of the forest. Then I knew that it was indeed he whom I had seen this morning, and now we were in his hands and helpless, as his men dragged us across the quay and to his vessel. The place was deserted, for the townsfolk did not love late hours.
They took us on board the buss, and half threw us into a small ill-smelling fore-peak under the high forecastle, through a low door under the break of the deck and down three steps. Bound as I was, I stumbled and could not save myself, and so fell headlong, with De Brezè on me. My head came heavily against a timber, and that was all I knew for a time.
When I came round I was free so far as bonds were concerned, but I was in the same place, and De Brezè was beside me, in the dark. The vessel was certainly at sea, and making her way against a light head-wind, for though she was steady she went about and rolled me against my comrade. Whereat I asked pardon.
"Why, that is well," he answered in a low voice, "for your senses have suffered no hurt. I thought your neck might be broken, for when I had managed to wrench my own bonds off and free you, you never stirred. Now, what may all this mean? We put to sea directly after we were taken, and have been out of harbour for two hours or so."
"I shouted, and tried to reach my dagger."
I told him what I knew of Cork, and then it seemed plain to us that he had trapped us for the sake of the price that was on our heads, that for De Brezè's taking being very great, as one might suppose. We should therefore be on our way to England, which was no pleasant thought, considering the fate of so many of the Queen's best followers. I think it likely that I was taken for Varennes, who was far more valuable, as one might say, than myself.