She felt the tears coursing down her cheeks with the intensity of her feelings. So concentrated was she on her thoughts of the Marquis that she did not realise that the men had stopped rowing until she felt one of them lift her shoulders and another take her feet.
She knew then that this was the moment when she would die and when she would feel the dark waters of the English Channel close over her.
She tried to pray and tried to force herself to die bravely.
‘God – God, take me!’
It was an effort to mouth the words and to force them to her lips.
Then suddenly she was thrown not into the water but over a man’s shoulder and, before she could recover from her surprise, she realised that he was climbing. He was moving up a ladder and after the first startled second she knew it was a rope-
