If you are found lower than the top-mast yard before then, you swing at the bowsprit." I was sorely tempted to retort then--so put about was I--that there was less chance of my countrymen seeing me if I swung at his bowsprit than if I swung at his stern.

But I prudently forebore.
"Sire," said I, "permit me first--" He turned on me with such a look that I ventured no more parley; and sad at heart, wondering what Ludar would think of me for not coming to him, and wishing this cursed sea-fight was at an end, I went to the hold for biscuits and a bottle of water, and, with no better armour than this, crawled miserably aloft.
Little I guessed what a revenge I was to have on the Dons before my three days were over! For a while, not a little of my pleasure in seeing her Majesty's ships on the right side of the wind was lost by this untoward accident.

And since the wind freshened increasingly during the day, and the Channel in those Straits is wickedly rough, I was soon too ill and out of humour to think of anything at all.

I had more than one mind to venture an escape, and perhaps swim to the French coast.

Yet, so long as Ludar was on the ship, I could not do it; and he in his grandee's quarters was as close a prisoner from me as if he had still been in the Tower.
I was growing tired of the Invincible Armada, and thought with longing of the snug parlour in the printing house without Temple Bar, where I had sat of old, listening to the music of a certain sweet voice which now seemed all but lost to me in the howling of winds and booming of guns and grinding of Spanish teeth.
Where now was she, and that fair maiden whom Ludar loved?
What hope were there of our ever meeting or hearing of one another's fate?
The night passed, and as Sunday dawned, I could see the English ships still hovering not far to rearward; while across, toward the English coasts, shone many white sails, as of the greater Queen's ships returning to join the fleet.
The wind slackened, so that the anchorage of the Armada, which had been sore strained in the night, held good; and with the French town so close on their flank, I thought, despite their loss of the wind, they rode safely enough where they were, and would have leisure to say mass and celebrate their popish rites without fear of disturbance that Sunday.
So it fell out.