THE SEA-SERPENT. 
97 
sixty feet; with calm disdain he gazed on 
this array of yachts ; but while he stood there, 
still and shining, there came at least some 
fifteen shots, that taught him there was more 
design in man than he had lately thought of, 
nor was he yet to be made naught of. Round 
and through him shot and ball hissed, and he 
hissed back, then, growling, plunged into the 
sea, while all the ocean trembled with his howl¬ 
ing. Then, O, then, you should have seen, 
how thronging round him from below his court¬ 
iers came, while some fifteen thousand ser¬ 
pents made a show of grinning heads, and flash¬ 
ing tails, wild, tossing manes, and hideous eyes ! 
— the sight o’er every doubt prevails, and fills 
Hunt’s party with surprise. However, nobly 
they stand to their guns, and blaze away hotly 
left and right; for they know full well, that he 
who runs will never hear the last of the fight. 
Bloody then grew the water there ; many a 
serpent bites the ocean ; while one old tar was 
heard to swear, that he before had u had no 
