A barrel was broached , and , sitting in what shelter they could find from the flying snow and spray , the shipwrecked company handed the cup around , and sought to warm their bodies and restore their spirits . Dick , meanwhile , returned to Lord Foxham , who lay in great perplexity and fear , the floor of his cabin washing knee-deep in water , and the lamp , which had been his only light , broken and extinguished by the violence of the blow . `` My lord , '' said young Shelton , `` fear not at all ; the saints are plainly for us ; the seas have cast us high upon a shoal , and as soon as the tide hath somewhat ebbed , we may walk ashore upon our feet . '' It was nearly an hour before the vessel was sufficiently deserted by the ebbing sea ; and they could set forth for the land , which appeared dimly before them through a veil of driving snow . Upon a hillock on one side of their way a party of men lay huddled together , suspiciously observing the movements of the new arrivals . `` They might draw near and offer us some comfort , '' Dick remarked . `` Well , an ' they come not to us , let us even turn aside to them , '' said Hawksley . `` The sooner we come to a good fire and a dry bed the better for my poor lord . '' But they had not moved far in the direction of the hillock , before the men , with one consent , rose suddenly to their feet , and poured a flight of well-directed arrows on the shipwrecked company . `` Back ! back ! '' cried his lordship . `` Beware , in Heaven 's name , that ye reply not . '' `` Nay , '' cried Greensheve , pulling an arrow from his leather jack . `` We are in no posture to fight , it is certain , being drenching wet , dog-weary , and three-parts frozen ; but , for the love of old England , what aileth them to shoot thus cruelly on their poor country people in distress ? '' `` They take us to be French pirates , '' answered Lord Foxham . `` In these most troublesome and degenerate days we can not keep our own shores of England ; but our old enemies , whom we once chased on sea and land , do now range at pleasure , robbing and slaughtering and burning . It is the pity and reproach of this poor land . '' The men upon the hillock lay , closely observing them , while they trailed upward from the beach and wound inland among desolate sand-hills ; for a mile or so they even hung upon the rear of the march , ready , at a sign , to pour another volley on the weary and dispirited fugitives ; and it was only when , striking at length upon a firm high-road , Dick began to call his men to some more martial order , that these jealous guardians of the coast of England silently disappeared among the snow . They had done what they desired ; they had protected their own homes and farms , their own families and cattle ; and their private interest being thus secured , it mattered not the weight of a straw to any one of them , although the Frenchmen should carry blood and fire to every other parish in the realm of England .
BOOK IV -- THE DISGUISE CHAPTER I -- THE DEN The place where XXXXX had struck the line of a high-road was not far from Holywood , and within nine or ten miles of Shoreby-on-the-Till ; and here , after making sure that they were pursued no longer , the two bodies separated .
Dick England French Frenchmen Greensheve days drenching hillock hour sand-hills