I had not the heart or the wish to seek new comrades; and, save when the brave Don himself gave me a passing word of cheer, I forgot what it was to speak or listen.
"Well, when off Cape Wrath (just as we sighted a few of our scattered consorts and hoped for food and comfort), a new storm overtook us from the north-east and drove us headlong, under bare poles, southward again.
We none of us, I think, cared if the next gust sent us to the bottom.
Many a weary young Don did I see fling himself in despair overboard; and but that we daily drew nearer to Ireland, I had been tempted to do the same.
"How long we drove I forget, or what wrecks we passed; but one day we found ourselves flung into a great bay, where, for a while, we held on to our anchors against the storm.

But the _Rata_ had lost her best thews and muscles at Calais, and, after two days, dragged towards the shore and fell miserably over, a wreck.
"We came to land in boats, or on floating spars, but only to meet worse hardships than on sea; for the savages on the coast, aided by your gallant Englishmen, fell on us, defenceless as we were, stripped us of all we had, and drove us from the shore in an old crank of a galleon, which, if it carried us thus far, did so only by the grace of God and His saints." "And where be we now ?" I asked.
"At Killybegs," said he, "and Heaven grant we may get out of it.

For a while, Tyrone, the O'Neill in these parts, sheltered and fed us.

But since the English came, he has left us to our fate, and the men lie rotting here as in a dungeon." "Why," said I, "'twas rumoured in England that the Spaniards had descended on Ireland to take it, and so strike across it at the Queen." He laughed.
"May your Queen ne'er have sturdier foes, Humphrey.

Come and see them." As we turned the corner of the hill, we came suddenly on three men, standing with their faces seaward and engaged in earnest talk.