1831.] The Lonely Man of the Ocean. 139 



crew, he began to think that the avenging hand of God was upon her ; 

 and turning his eye towards the broad sheet of ocean waves which rolled 

 between him and the north-eastern horizon, was heard to murmur, 

 " Farewell ! farewell !" 



One night, after having for some time tended the beds of the sick and 

 dying, Loeffler retired to his couch, and endeavoured to gain in slumber 

 a brief forgetfulness of all the thoughts that weighed down his spirit. 

 But a death-like sickness came over him ; his little cabin seemed to 

 whirl round as if moving on a pivot, while his restless limbs found no 

 space for their feverish evolutions in his confined berth. Christian began 

 to think that his hour was coming, and he tried to raise his soul in 

 prayer ; but while he essayed to fix his thoughts on Heaven, he felt that 

 his reason was fast yielding to the burning fever which seemed almost 

 to be consuming his brain. He called for water, but none heard or 

 answered his cries. He crawled on deck, and, as the sun had now set 

 several hours, hoped for a breath of the fresh air of heaven. He threw 

 himself down, and turned his face towards the dark sky. But the 

 atmosphere was sultry, heavy, oppressive. It appeared to lie like an 

 insupportable weight on his chest. He called for the surgeon, but he 

 called in vain ; the surgeon himself was no more, and his deputy found 

 a larger demand on his professional exertions than his powers, either 

 physical or mental, were capable of encountering. A humane hand at 

 length administered a cup of water. Even the very element was warm 

 with the heat of the vessel. It produced, however, a temporary sensa- 

 tion of refreshment, and Loeffler partially slumbered. But who can 

 describe that strange and pestilential sleep ! A theatre seemed to be 

 " lighted up within his brain," which teemed with strange, hideous, and 

 portentous scenes, or figures whose very splendour was appalling. All 

 the ship seemed lit with varied lamps ; then the lamps vanished, and, 

 instead of a natural and earthly illumination, it seemed as if the rigging, 

 yards, and sails of the vessel were all made of living phosphor, or some 

 strange ignited matter, which far and wide sent a lurid glare on the 

 waters. Loeffler looked up long masts of bright and living fire, shrouds 

 whose minutest interlacing were all of the same vivid element, yet 

 clear, distinct, and unmixed by any excrescent flame which might take 

 from the regular appearance of the rigging ; while the size of the vessel 

 seemed increased to the most unnatural dimensions, and her glowing 

 top-masts up which Loeffler strained his vision seemed to pierce the 

 skies. A preternatural and almost palpable darkness succeeded this 

 ruddy light; then the long and loud blast of a trumpet, and the 

 words " Come to judgment, forgetters of your God !" sounded in 

 Loeffler's ear. He groaned, struggled, tried to thrust his arms vio- 

 lently from him, and awoke. 



He found his neck distended to torture by a hard and frightful swell- 

 ing, which almost deprived his head of motion, and caused the most 

 excruciating anguish, while similar indications on his side assured him 

 that disease was collecting its angry venom. The thought he had often 

 banished now rushed on Christian's mind ; and a fearful test, by which 

 he might prove its reality, now suddenly occurred to him. It seemed 

 as if the delirium of his fever were sobered for a moment by the solemn 

 trial he was about to make. He was lying near one of the ship-lights. 

 He dragged himself, though with difficulty, towards it ; he opened the 

 breast of his shirt. All was decided. Three or four purple spots were 



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