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FathomA fathom is a unit of measure equal to 2 yards or 6 feet, or 1.8288 metres. It was originally defined as the span of a man's outstretched arms, and its name derives from the Old English word faethm, meaning 'bosom'. The unit was first used for land measurement, but is now restricted to nautical uses. After metrication, its use for marine navigation was allowed to continue in the UK and Ireland by directives 80/181/EEC and 89/617/EEC, but this authorisation expired in December 31, 1999.The rationale for the outstretched arm origin, is that to measure depth, sailors used to throw a line with a small weight tied at the end into the water, wait until it hit the bottom, and then measured the length of the line from finger tip to finger tip as it was pulled up again. He leaned over the balustrade, and saw: very plainly a soldier lying
anguish.
"They will not take me alive, be assured," said the marquis.
"Adieu, then," replied she, sobbing; "may Heaven preserve you!"
He bestrode the balustrade, spread himself out upon it, and fell
hastily detach a horse.html">horse.html">horse.html">horse.html">horse.html">horse, pass behind the stable wall, spur his horse
against the hurdle, knock it down, clear it, and reach the highroad
the sleeping sentry, and ready to disappear at the slightest
at the end of the courtyard had half awakened him. He rose, and
there; the marquis, in his haste to escape, had taken the first which
alarm; his comrades woke up. They ran to the prisoner.html">prisoner.html">prisoner's room, and
The prisoner had escaped.
Then the young girl, pretending to have been roused by the noise,
horsemen instead of helping them; nevertheless, after a quarter of an
like a pagan. The best horses led the way, and the sentinel, who
prisoner, far outstripped his companions; he was followed by the
line he had taken, after some minutes they were in view of him, but
horse he had taken was the worst in the troop, and he had pressed it
half a musket-shot off; he urged his horse more and more, tearing his
foundered; the marquis rolled with it in the dust, but when rolling
pistols; he lay flat by the side of the horse, as if he had fainted,
valuable horse, and more than two hundred yards ahead of his
he had tune to resist him, shot him through the head; the horseman
the stirrup, started off at a gallop, and went away like the wind,
dumbfounded with what had just passed before his eyes.
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