Of Master Peter and the Strange Art of the Deep

Forsooth, there dwelt in days of yore a Gentleman of passing great honour and most noble lineage, whose name was writ to shine in the remembrance of posteritie for evermore. In the hamlet of Gothenburg, amidst the Swedish lands, he made his abode — fie upon those accursed Swedes, who hold not the blood of Christians in any regard!..

All manner of felicitie attended him, with great store of wealth and staydness. In riches he surpassed many, being a youth of most fresh and healthfull vigour, of a comely countenance and a haughtie carriage, as well beseemeth a Gentleman of coat-armour. He would sit soft upon his couch, pouring sweet wines into his ancestral plate of silver, and ate of the finest bread, bearing himself towards his hinds as a right gracious Lord. Every swain upon his demesne lived in dignitie and weal, and his Worship would pass the hours with his folk at banquets, harvest-feasts, and diverse jollities; so much so, that none in the village, whether in sport or in true brawl, could o’ermatch him at fisticuffs.

Alack — O, most cruell Fate! — of a sudden a darke cloud did overhang the bright welkin above his head, and a heavy sorrow oppressed the heart of our Gentleman. Life grew pale in his sight, the choicest viands lost their savour, and even the most excellent of damsels could not entice a smile upon his fair visage.

For our Peter—for such was his Christian name—was seized with a longing for a strange Art from beyond the seas: to dive with a bottle, a thing in those times beyond all conceit, a new-fangled sport, which (as 'tis said) shall only hereafter be devised in the French King’s realm by a certain Aristocrat named Jacques-Yves Cousteau. And lo! he did squander the half of his estates upon this whimsey, fetching engines and gear from France, yet in the use thereof — God save us! — he was most grievously unskilfull…

But Fortune, like unto the wind upon the moor, roams the earth with a fickle will—and not all things must needs dwell in heaviness. A fair end did Crown this matter: a friendship with a Painter of wide renown, no less frantick than himself, and thereafter the nightly contemplations of the starry heavens, which with their bold and mighty lustre did enlighten the hearts and chronicles of all who in this history found their place.