THE SEA-SERPENT. 
87 
go with Hunt in pursuit of the common foe ; he 
has command ; Forbes and Prince — haggard 
and sad with grim despair — are with him, 
They have been brothers since they lost their 
loves in that sad affair at Nahant, and now they 
are going there. 
They arrived ; and as the fleet drew near, 
Miss Percy descried Hunt’s signal-flag, and hur¬ 
ried off at once to the pier ; while many a group, 
on cliff and crag, — with fluttering dress and 
gypsy bonnets, and parasols that shaded brows 
worthy of even Petrarch’s sonnets, the dread 
of bucks and hostile cows, — stood with their 
streaming shawls and veils, and courted, with 
their beaux, the gales. Just then, with “ sail 
and signal spread,” a gallant ship, with crowded 
deck, before the freshening breezes fled, unmind¬ 
ful of the storm or wreck. They were bound 
for the glittering land of gold, where our western 
summits kiss the sky ; and they loudly sang, as 
they onward rolled, this song to a popular 
melody : — 
