A HURKICANE. 
7 
make all secure for the night ; but the captain was 
evidently thoughtful and uneasy, his cheek was flush- 
ed and his eye restless. He gave his orders with all the 
coolness and precision derived from long experience, 
but it was evident that his mind was labouring under 
unusual excitement. He turned continually to the 
weather with an earnest but unquiet gaze ,* stood fre- 
quently by the man at the wheel ; watched him as he 
steered, every now and then seizing one of the spokes 
with an impulsive eagerness which evinced a highly 
perturbed state of feeling. I could not help observing 
this, and it led to conclusions not at all calculated to 
prepare me for a peaceful night’s rest. I began to be 
extremely disquieted ; and though I did not venture to 
express my apprehension, the saddest ideas were con- 
tinually crowding upon my thoughts and filling my 
breast with tumultuous emotions. 
The wind was by this time frightfully violent. 
At intervals the captain vociferated his orders through 
a trumpet, which sounded amid the howlings of the 
storm like the hoarse cries of some evil spirit by 
which its merciless fury was excited and kept in play. 
The uproar is not to be described ! At length all had 
retired to their cabins save the captain and myself. 
We were both seated in the cuddy ; I upon the car- 
riage of a gun, to which I was obliged to cling to pre- 
serve my equilibrium. He was smoking a cigar ; and 
our conversation, now carried on with some difficulty, 
turned naturally upon the hurricane, against which the 
ship was at that moment most fearfully labouring. 
Suddenly, a heavy sea struck her astern, but happily 
on the quarter, and in an instant carried away the 
