about six a.m.
4 E. for the first time and the last , with other things unknown to Admiralties , I shall proceed to tell . He had had his fling , had Shard , captain of pirates , and all his merry men wore pearls in their ear-rings ; and now the English fleet was after him under full sail along the coast of Spain with a good North wind behind them . They were not gaining much on Shard 's rakish craft , the bad ship Desperate Lark , yet they were closer than was to his liking , and they interfered with business . For a day and a night they had chased him , when off Cape St. Vincent at about six a.m. Shard took that step that decided his retirement from active life , he turned for the Mediterranean . Had he held on Southwards down the African coast it is doubtful whether in face of the interference of England , Russia , France , Denmark and Spain , he could have made piracy pay ; but in turning for the Mediterranean he took what we may call the penultimate step of his life which meant for him settling down . There were three great courses of action invented by Shard in his youth , upon which he pondered by day and brooded by night , consolations in all his dangers , secret even from his men , three means of escape as he hoped from any peril that might meet him on the sea . One of these was the floating island that the Book of Wonder tells of , another was so fantastic that we may doubt if even the brilliant audacity of Shard could ever have found it practicable , at least he never tried it so far as is known in that tavern by the sea in which I glean my news , and the third he determined on carrying out as he turned that morning for the Mediterranean .