His manners were like those of most seamen, bold, but not offensively
so. His eye was piercing as an eagle's; and it seemed as if his very
soul spoke from it. At the very first meeting between him and the
daughter of Vandermaclin, it appeared to both as if their destinies were
to unite them.

They loved not as others love, but with an intensity which it would be
impossible to portray; but they hardly exchanged a word. Again and
again they met; their eyes spoke, but nothing more. The bell was put on
board the vessel, the money had been paid down, and M'Clise could no
longer delay. He felt as if his heart-strings were severed as he tore
himself away from the land where all remained that he coveted upon
earth. And Katerina, she too felt as if her existence was a blank; and
as the vessel sailed from the port, she breathed short; and when not
even her white and lofty topgallant sail could be discovered as a speck,
she threw herself on her couch and wept. And M'Clise as he sailed away,
remained for hours leaning his cheek on his hand, thinking of, over and
over again, every lineament and feature of the peerless Katerina.

Two months passed away, during which M'Clise was busied every ebb of the
tide in superintending the work on the rock. At last, all was ready;
and once more was to be beheld a gay procession; but this time it was on
the water. It was on a calm and lovely summer's morn, that the abbots
and the monks, attended by a large company of the authorities, and
others, who were so much interested in the work in hand, started from
the shore of Aberbrothwick in a long line of boats, decorated with
sacred and with other various banners and devices. The music floated
along the water, and the solemn chants of the monks were for once heard
where never yet they had been heard before, or ever will again. M'Clise
was at the rock, in a small vessel purposely constructed to carry the
bell, and with sheers to hang it on the supports imbedded in the solid
rock. The bell was in its place, and the abbot blessed the bell; and
holy water was sprinkled on the metal, which was for the future to be
lashed by the waves of the salt sea. And the music and the chants were
renewed; and as they continued, the wind gradually rose, and with the
rising of the wind the bell tolled loud and deep. The tolling of the
bell was the signal for return, for it was a warning that the weather
was about to change, and the procession pulled back