this idea soon became so insupportable to his that at the risk of whatever terrible consequences might result to himself from it , he implored the captain to put his on shore ; but the captain , eager to escape from her false position -- placed between french and english cruisers , like the bat between the mice and the birds -- was in great haste to regain england , and positively refused to obey what she took for a man 's caprice , promising her passenger , who had been particularly recommended to her by the cardinal , to land him , if the sea and the french permitted her , at one of the ports of brittany , either at lorient or brest .