But oh, how cold it was in that dark water!  Hardy though the pair were, it seemed impossible to live in that fearful cold; but they struck out valiantly into midstream, and presently the exercise of swimming brought a little life into their benumbed limbs.  But glad indeed was Paul to reach the side of the little wherry which they intended to purloin, and it was all that their united efforts could do to clamber in and cut the cord which bound it to the barge.

“We must row hard, Edward,” said Paul, with chattering teeth; “it is our only chance of life.  We shall freeze to death if we cannot get some warmth into our blood.  I feel like a block of ice.”

They were too much benumbed to try and dress themselves yet, but as they rowed their hardest along the dark, still water, the life came ebbing back into their chilled limbs, and with the welcome warmth came that exultation of heart which always follows escape from deadly peril.  With more and more vigour they bent to their oars, and at last Edward spoke in a natural voice again.

“Let us float down quietly with the stream a while, Paul, whilst we don our dry garments, if indeed they are dry.  It will be better here than on shore, where we might chance to be seen and suspected.  I am glowing hot now, freezing night though it be; but I confess I should be more comfortable rid of these soaking clothes.”

So stripping off these, they found, to their great satisfaction, that the leather jerkins in which the other clothing had been wrapped had kept everything dry, and the feel of warm and sufficient clothing was grateful indeed after the icy bath they had encountered.  Their boots were wet, but that mattered little to the hardy striplings; and when, dressed and armed, they bent to their oars again, it seemed as if all their spirit and confidence had come back.

“We have made so good a start that we shall surely prosper,” cried Edward boldly.  “Our good friend the peddler will look blank enough when morning comes and they find the birds are flown.”

But Paul could not triumph quite so soon; he was still far from feeling assured of safety, and feared their escape might be quickly made known, in which case pursuit would be hot.  The best hope lay in getting into the forest, which might give them shelter, and enable them to baffle pursuit; but responsibility lay sore upon him, and he could not be quite as gay as his comrade.

The moon shone out from behind the clouds, and presently they slipped beneath the arches of the old bridge, and past the grim fortress of the Tower.  Very soon after that, they were gliding between green and lonely banks in a marshy land, and they presently effected a landing and struck northward, guiding themselves by the position of the moon.

It was a strange, desolate country they traversed, and glad enough was Paul that it was night when they had to cross this unprotected fiat land.  By day they would be visible for miles to the trained eye of a highwayman, and if pursued would fall an easy prey.  But by crossing this desolate waste at night, when not a living thing was to be seen, they might gain the dark aisles of the wood by the time the tardy dawn stole upon them, and once there Paul thought he could breathe freely again.