The two Frenchmen were soon provided with all that they were likely to require, and pushed off with a waving of hats and a shouting of bon voyage.  The foreyard was swung round again and the Golden Rod turned her bowsprit for the west.  For hours a glimpse could be caught of the boat, dwindling away on the wave-tops, until at last it vanished into the haze, and with it vanished the very last link which connected them with the great world which they were leaving behind them.

But whilst these things had been done, the senseless man beneath the mast had twitched his eyelids, had drawn a little gasping breath, and then finally had opened his eyes.  His skin was like gray parchment drawn tightly over his bones, and the limbs which thrust out from his clothes were those of a sickly child.  Yet, weak as he was, the large black eyes with which he looked about him were full of dignity and power.  Old Catinat had come upon deck, and at the sight of the man and of his dress he had run forward, and had raised his head reverently and rested it in his own arms.

“He is one of the faithful,” he cried, “he is one of our pastors.  Ah, now indeed a blessing will be upon our journey!”

But the man smiled gently and shook his head.  “I fear that I may not come this journey with you,” said he, “for the Lord has called me upon a further journey of my own.  I have had my summons and I am ready.  I am indeed the pastor of the temple at Isigny, and when we heard the orders of the wicked king, I and two of the faithful with their little one put forth in the hope that we might come to England.  But on the first day there came a wave which swept away one of our oars and all that was in the boat, our bread, our keg, and we were left with no hope save in Him.  And then He began to call us to Him one at a time, first the child, and then the woman, and then the man, until I only am left, though I feel that my own time is not long.  But since ye are also of the faithful, may I not serve you in any way before I go?”

The merchant shook his head, and then suddenly a thought flashed upon him, and he ran with joy upon his face and whispered eagerly to Amos Green.  Amos laughed, and strode across to the captain.

“It’s time,” said Ephraim Savage grimly.

Then the whisperers went to De Catinat.  He sprang in the air and his eyes shone with delight.  And then they went down to Adele in her cabin, and she started and blushed, and turned her sweet face away, and patted her hair with her hands as woman will when a sudden call is made upon her.  And so, since haste was needful, and since even there upon the lonely sea there was one coming who might at any moment snap their purpose, they found themselves in a few minutes, this gallant man and this pure woman, kneeling hand in hand before the dying pastor, who raised his thin arm feebly in benediction as he muttered the words which should make them forever one.