"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?" "I left Cherbourg four days agone in the barque _Endeavour_, of Lymington, and the first intimation of the inevitable rupture 'twixt the King and his rebellious Parliament occurred in a rude fashion by the Endeavour being boarded when off the Needles by the ship _Bonaventure_, lately held by His Majesty, but recently seized by the rebels, and forming part of the fleet that lay against Portsmouth." "Though we carried naught that might be reckoned as munitions of war, some of the officers of the _Bonaventure_ recognised me, and, thinking rightly that I was on the service of the King, they detained me, searching my baggage and person for any documents. Therein they were foiled, but how I'll explain anon. Finding nothing, they clapped me in a close and dirty cabin on the _Bonaventure's_ main deck, allowing me to take the air on deck every four hours." "At yester-midday the vessel came up under all sail through the Solent Channel, and stood over so close to Hurst Castle that I hoped to seize the chance of jumping overboard and swimming ashore; but so strong flowed the tide, surpassing the trotting pace of a horse, that the _Bonaventure_ was swept back and compelled to anchor in one of the bays on the island shore."