1831 .] The Lonely Man of the Ocean. 143 



fore, even if one hand could have steered the noble vessel, his was not 

 that hand. Doubtless, the plague had broken out in Portugal ; and 

 consequently the Invincible, who had so recently sailed from her capital, 

 would (as in all similar cases) be avoided by her sisters of the ocean. 



These thoughts suggested themselves to Christian's mind, as, gra- 

 dually recovering from the senselessness of exhaustion, he lay stretched 

 on deck, listening to the scarcely perceptible noise of the water as it 

 faintly rolled against the side of the vessel, and as softly receded ; while 

 his soul, as it recalled the form of his best-beloved on earth, rose in 

 prayer for her and for himself. 



Week after week passed away, and still the Solitary Man of the Sea 

 was the lone occupant of the crewless and now partially dismantled 

 Invincible. She had been the sport of many a varying wind, at whose 

 caprice she had performed more than one short and useless voyage round 

 the fatal spot where she had been so long becalmed ; but still, as if that 

 were the magical, and even malevolent centre of her movements, she 

 seldom made much way beyond it; and light, deceitful breezes were 

 constantly followed by renewed calms. A tropical equinox was, how- 

 ever, drawing near, though the lone seaman was not aware of its 

 approach. The time which he had passed in the anguish of disease, and 

 the aberrations of delirium, had appeared to him of much greater length 

 than its actual duration ; and as no tongue survived to correct his error, 

 he had lost all calculations of the motions of time. He listened, there- 

 fore, with an ear half-fearful, half-hopeful, to the risings of the blast. 

 At first it began to whistle shrilly through the shrouds and rigging ; 

 the whistle deepened into a thundering roar, and the idle rocking of the 

 ship was changed into the boisterous motion of a storm-beaten vessel. 

 Loe'ffler, however, threw himself as usual on deck for his night's repose ; 

 and, wrapped in his sea-cloak, was rocked to slumber even by the 

 stormy lullaby of the elements. 



Towards midnight the voice of the tempest began to deepen to a tone 

 of ominous and apparently-concentrating force, which might have startled 

 the most reckless slumberer. Sheets of lightning playing from one 

 extremity of the sky to the other shewed the dense masses of rent and 

 scattered clouds which blackened the face of heaven ; while the peal of 

 thunder that followed seemed to pour its full tide of fury immediately 

 over the fated ship. The blast, when contrasted with the still atmos- 

 phere and oppressive heat which had preceded it, appeared to Loe'ffler 

 piercing, and even wintry cold ; while the fierce and unintermittant 

 motion of the vessel rendered it almost difficult for him to preserve a 

 footing on deck. By every fresh flash of lightning, he could see wide- 

 spread and increasing sheets of surge running towards the ship'with a 

 fury that half suggested the idea of malevolent volition on their part ; 

 while they dashed against the sides with a violence which seemed to drive 

 in her timbers, and swamped the deck with foam and billows. Whether 

 any of these storm-tossed waves made their way below or whether the 

 ship, so long deprived of nautical examination, had sprung a leak in the 

 first encounter of the tempest Loe'ffler could not determine ; but the 

 conviction that she was filling with water forced itself on his mind. He 

 again cast his eyes to the north-eastern horizon, and again uttered aloud 

 te Farewell ! farewell !" 



The loneliness of his situation, to which time, though it had not recon- 

 ciled, had habituated him, came upon him with the renewed and appalling 



