her master; or otherwise he would
never fall in with an enemy. But, though an Englishman born myself, I
should rather give the ship in that mist a clear sea, seeing that I
neither know her nation nor her cruise. Ah, Captain Wilder, this is an
awful sight for the morning watch! Often and often have I seen the sun
rise in the east, and no harm done; but little good can come of a day
when the light first breaks in the west. Cheerfully would I give the
owners the last month's pay, hard as it has been earned, did I but know
under what flag the stranger sails."

"Frenchman, Don, or Devil, yonder he comes!" cries Wilder. Then, turning
towards the attentive crew, he shouted, in a voice that was appalling by
its vehemence and warning, "Let run the after-halyards! round with the
fore-yard; round with it, men, with a will!"

These were cries that the startled crew but too well understood. Every
nerve and muscle were exerted to execute the orders, to be in readiness
for the tempest. No man spoke; but each expended the utmost of his power
and skill in direct and manly efforts. Nor was there, in verity, a
moment to lose, or a particle of human strength expended here, without a
sufficient object.

The lurid and fearful-looking mist, which, for the last quarter of an
hour, had been gathering in the north-west, was driving down upon them
with the speed of a race-horse. The air had already lost the damp and
peculiar feeling of an easterly breeze; and little eddies were beginning
to flutter among the masts--precursors of the coming squall. Then, a
rushing, roaring sound was heard moaning along the ocean, whose surface
was first dimpled, next ruffled, and finally covered with a sheet of
clear, white, and spotless foam. At the next moment, the power of the
wind fell upon the inert and labouring Bristol trader.

While the gust was approaching, Wilder had seized the slight opportunity
afforded by the changeful puffs of air to get the ship as much as
possible before the wind; but the sluggish movement of the vessel met
neither the wishes of his own impatience nor the exigencies of the
moment. Her bows slowly and heavily fell off from the north, leaving her
precisely in a situation to receive the first shock on her broadside.
Happy it was, for all who had life at risk in that defenceless vessel,
that she was not fated to receive the whole weight of the tempest at a
blow. The sails fluttered and trembled on their massive yards, b