148 STORMY PETEEL. 



scowls and blackens more angrily, and low clouds whirl and 

 wheel about in uncertain eddies, all betokening a savage burst 

 of the outpoured fury of the elements; but while other sea- 

 birds scuttle off to seek shelter, if any may be found, the 

 Petrel still stays, and awaits the utmost violence of the storm. 



In the offing there rises up the weather-beaten hull of some 

 doomed ship, 'lean, rent, and beggared,' which in vain struggles 

 and strains to keep of the fatal lee-shore. She drifts nearer 

 and nearer; you would see at once that her hour has come, 

 and that no human power can save her. Now the darkness 

 lowers still deeper, the mournful sighings of the air tell of the 

 awaking of the winds from their snatched and fitful slumber, 

 and warn that they will soon be sweeping on again with re- 

 doubled force, like a troop of gaunt and famished wolves greedy 

 of their certain prey. The black hull looms larger and larger 

 as the tempest-tossed vessel rises on the high wild seas outside, 

 and the only barriers between her and the rocky cliffs, half- 

 way up which the billows are breaking, and recoiling again 

 In boiling surf, are the sunken rocks, 'over which stupendous 

 breakers, lashed into fury by the angry gusts, run riot, 

 mingling the hissing of their seething waves with the furious 

 ravings of the blast.' 



It is as nature has foretold, and the signs of the vast 

 power of the air, which she has ushered in with many sublime 

 portents, are quickly fulfilled. The sky above assumes a 

 fierce and fiery appearance, and to windward a huge bank of 

 black cloud rises up and up from the distance, and, as it 

 comes on nearer and nearer, the 'mighty and strong wind,' in 

 the language of Scripture, is driven, as it were, out of its 

 dark depths to carry all irresistibly before it. With every 

 fresh burst of the tempest a harsh screaming sound, as the 

 howl of a legion of evil spirits let loose and borne on its 

 ominous wings, warns of the mischief too late, the cries of 

 the uncaged wind gather strength and wax louder and louder, 

 as if never to be calmed again. Now, for an instant, the 

 vivid lightning lightens up the scene, and reveals the darkness 

 around, above, and below, to leave all still more awful than 

 before; and following it, 'Heaven's artillery,' the thunder-clap, 

 rolls over and echoes away among the clouds, peal upon peal 

 and crash upon crash. And, las.t, night comes on with its 

 gloomy grandeur, and the blackness of the black depth below 

 is taken into the blackness that comes down upon it all is 

 black. The sea closes over the fated ship, -and the wail of 



