"What say you?" exclaimed the interpreter. As for Meroe, she gazed at
her husband in pained surprise, for, by his words, he seemed finally to
have renounced his vengeance.

"I speak the truth," answered Albinik. "I'll prove it to you. That
Irishman knows as well as I the dangers attendant upon entering the bay
he has just left. I shall ask him to go before us, as pilot, and in
advance I shall trace for you the route he will take. First he will
take the channel to the right of the islet; then he will advance till he
almost touches that point of land which you see furthest off; then he
will make a wide turn to the right until he is just off those black
rocks which tower over yonder; that pass behind us, those rocks shunned,
we shall be safely in the bay. If the Irishman executes this manoeuvre
from point to point, will you still suspect me?"

"No, by Jupiter!" answered the interpreter. "It would then be absurd to
entertain the least doubt of your good faith."

"Judge me then," said Albinik, and he addressed a few words to the
Irishman, who consented to pilot the ships. His manoeuvring tallied
exactly with what Albinik had foretold. The latter, having given to the
Romans this testimony of his truthfulness, deployed the fleet in three
files, and for some time he guided them among the little islands with
which the bay was dotted. Then he ordered the rowers to rest on their
oars. From this place they could not see the Gallic fleet, anchored at
the furthest part of the bay at almost two leagues' distance, and
screened from all eyes by a lofty promontory.

"Now," said Albinik to the interpreter, "We now run only one danger; it
is a great one. Before us are shifting sandbanks, occasionally displaced
by the high tides; the galleys might ground there. It is necessary,
then, that I reconnoitre the passage plummet in hand, before bringing
the fleet into it. Let them rest as they are on their oars. Order the
smallest boat your galley has to be launched, with two rowers. My wife
will take the tiller. If you have any suspicion, you and the soldier
with the axe may accompany us in the boat. Then, the passage
reconnoitred, I shall return on board to pilot the fleet even to the
mouth of the harbor of Vannes."

"I no longer suspect," answered the interpreter. "But according to
Caesar's order, neither the soldier nor I may leave you a single
instant."

"Let it be as you wish," assented Albinik.

A small boat was lowered from the