^■26 THE FisnEns of stotfuld. 



shrieks, to which one would have imagined that even enraged inani- 

 mate nature could not have been deaf; and hearl-rending exclama- 

 tions of "My father!" "My brothers'." &e., which- proceeded 

 from the younger portion of those present, mingled in mournfully 

 rapid succession with the dismal bowlings of the winds, and the surly 

 thunderings of the waves. All the spectators, in fact, young and 

 old, seemed to be every thing but absolutely frantic. At this mo- 

 ment one of the boats upset, and in an instant the yawning deep 

 received into its insatiable bosom all who were in it. One only rose 

 again. He was a young man about the age of twenty. He caught 

 hold of the boat, and for about a minute adhered to it; but while in 

 the act of making a wafture of his hand, as if recognising and bidding 

 a final adieu to those on the shore, one tremendous wave forcibly 

 swept him from the keel of the boat to which he was clinging, and 

 buried him to rise no more. No description could do adequate 

 justice to the scene, which followed this dreadful catastrophe, among 

 the spectators on the shore ; but there was one, a young and inte- 

 resting woman of the age of twenty, on whose mind it produced a 

 temporary frenzy or madness. In the frantic feeling of the moment 

 she was in the act of plunging herself into the sea, from out of which, 

 in its then tempestuous state, no earthly hand could have rescued 

 her — when a vounff man from the neiohbourino- villiio;e of Lossie- 

 mouth, the greater part of whose population were by this time on 

 the spot, caught hold of her, and carried her, with the assistance of 

 others, to the nearest house, where every attention was paid to her 

 until the momentary cloud which obscured her intellects had passed 

 away. 



The tempestuousness of the wind, if possible, increased; and the 

 ocean raged and lashed herself without any abatement of her fury. 

 In less than two minutes from the " soingf down" of the first boat, 

 a second, with every hand in it, sunk in almost the same spot ; and 

 in a few seconds more the third and last, with all it contained, shared 

 the same fate. Three of the fishermen rose above the water, and 

 swam for several minutes ; but then, like those before them, they 

 sank to perish. If any thing could by possibility have rendered the 

 mournful scene of so many human beings perishing, in the manner 

 it has been attempted to describe, more distressing, it would have 

 been the circumstance of one of the three men who kept themselves 



above water some minutes after the sinking of the boat strua-ffli 



^ w. ^..^ „v,„v "—"Qjg 



m 



with the destructive element with his son, a boy of about eight years 

 of age, and who had aever been at sea before, — in his arms, until both 

 went down and perished together. 



The scene which the sea-side now exhibited is left for the reader 

 to imagine, as any attempt to describe it would be doing it an evi- 

 dent injustice. It is, perhaps, however, but proper to remark that, 

 but for the providential presence of strangers, some of those more 

 nearly related to the unfortunate men now stretched on the bottom 

 of the sea might, in the overpowering feelings of the moment, have 

 fallen victims to their immeasurable sorrow. 



By the exertions of others, all the remaining villagers of Stotfield 

 were got conveyed from the shore to their houses ; but during the 



