he clove the water through.

He bore her to the shore and left her safe there, and plunged in again,
crying to her, over his shoulder: "I will bring back the others!" And
she stood dripping, gazing after him, sobbing and wringing her hands,
but filled with wild admiration and amaze.

He shouted orders to the sobered men to hold steady to the wherry and
dived to bring back one woman after another to firm land; a boat found
in the osiers was put forth above, and in time all were brought to
shore, though the bridegroom, who had not come near enough to the
wherry, was dragged in looking like a dead man.

The bride flung herself upon his body, shrieking and kissing him. The
people who had run up crowded about in senseless excitement and would
have kept all air away. But there was one among them who had his wits
clear and ordered them off, plainly remembering not for a moment that
his brocades and laces lay hid among the trees, and he stood among them
as Apollo stands in marble.

"Bring brandy," he commanded the nearest. "Stand back; strip his
clothes from him and empty the water from his stomach. Here," to a
matron who had come up panting, "take his wife away."

The good woman he addressed dropped a hurried curtsey and hustled off
the woman under her wing. She led them into the sun and wrung the water
from their garments, while they sobbed and choked and wept.

"Hush thee, wench!" she said to the stricken bride. "Hush thee, little
fool; my lord Marquess will put life into him and set him on his feet