in his torments, crying aloud for
a drop of water to cool their tongues; and every man a great stinking
vulture or two sitting by him, like an ugly black fiend out of the pit,
waiting till the poor soul should depart out of the corpse: but nothing
could avail, and for the dear life we must down again and into the
woods, or be burned up alive upon those rocks.

"So getting down the slope on the farther side, we came into the woods
once more, and there wandered for many days, I know not how many;
our shoes being gone, and our clothes all rent off us with brakes and
briars. And yet how the lady endured all was a marvel to see; for she
went barefoot many days, and for clothes was fain to wrap herself in Mr.
Oxenham's cloak; while the little maid went all but naked: but ever she
looked still on Mr. Oxenham, and seemed to take no care as long as he
was by, comforting and cheering us all with pleasant words; yea, and
once sitting down under a great fig-tree, sang us all to sleep with
very sweet music; yet, waking about midnight, I saw her sitting still
upright, weeping very bitterly; on whom, sirs, God have mercy; for she
was a fair and a brave jewel.

"And so, to make few words of a sad matter, at last there were none left
but Mr. Oxenham and the lady and the little maid, together with me and
William Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade. And Mr. Oxenham always
led the lady, and Penberthy and I carried the little maid. And for food
we had fruits, such as we could find, and water we got from the leaves
of certain lilies which grew on the bark of trees, which I found by
seeing the monkeys drink at them; and the little maid called them
monkey-cups, and asked for them continually, making me climb for them.
And so we wandered on, and upward into very high mountains, always
fearing lest the Spaniards should track us with dogs, which made the
lady leap up often in her sleep, crying that the bloodhounds were upon
her. And it befell upon a day, that we came into a great wood of ferns
(which grew not on the ground like ours, but on stems as big as a
pinnace's mast, and the bark of them was like a fine meshed net, very
strange to see), where was very pleasant shade, cool and green; and
there, gentlemen, we sat down on a bank of moss, like folk desperate and
fordone, and every one looked the other in the face for a long while.
After which I took off the bark of those ferns, for I must needs be
doing something to drive away thought, an