To them he walked, and very quietly picking up my whinger and my raiment that he gathered under his arm, he concealed himself in a thick bush, albeit it was leafless, where no man could have been aware of him.

This amazed me not a little, for modesty did not seem any part of his nature.
"Now," says he, "fetch over my arbalest.

Lying where I am you have no advantage to shoot me, as, nom de Dieu! I would have shot you had you not obeyed.

And hark ye, by the way, unwind the arbalest before you cross; it is ever well to be on the safe side.

And be sure you wet not the string." He pushed his face through the bush, and held in his mouth my naked whinger, that shone between his shining eyes.
Now again I say it, I have thought over this matter many a time, and have even laughed aloud and bitterly, when I was alone, at the figure of me shivering there, on a cold February day, and at my helpless estate.