oul.

The boat, guided by the well-nigh miraculous skill of the steersman,
came almost within sight of Ostend, when, not fifty paces from the
shore, she was suddenly struck by a heavy sea and capsized. The stranger
with the light about his head spoke to this little world of drowning
creatures:

"Those who have faith shall be saved; let them follow me!"

He stood upright, and walked with a firm step upon the waves. The young
mother at once took her child in her arms, and followed at his side
across the sea. The soldier too sprang up, saying in his homely fashion,
"Ah! _nom d'un pipe_! I would follow _you_ to the devil;" and without
seeming astonished by it, he walked on the water. The worn-out sinner,
believing in the omnipotence of God, also followed the stranger.

The two peasants said to each other, "If they are walking on the sea,
why should we not do as they do?" and they also arose and hastened after
the others. Thomas tried to follow, but his faith tottered; he sank
in the sea more than once, and rose again, but the third time he also
walked on the sea. The bold steersman clung like a remora to the wreck
of his boat. The miser had had faith, and had risen to go, but he tried
to take his gold with him, and it was his gold that dragged him down
to the bottom. The learned man had scoffed at the charlatan and at the
fools who listened to him; and when he heard the mysterious stranger
propose to the passengers that they should walk on the waves, he began
to laugh, and the ocean swallowed him. The girl was dragged down into
the depths by her lover. The Bishop and the older lady went to the
bottom, heavily laden with sins, it may be, but still more heavily laden
with incredulity and confidence in idols, weighted down by devotion,
into which alms-deeds and true religion entered but little.

The faithful flock, who walked with a firm step high and dry above the
surge, heard all about them the dreadful whistling of the blast; great
billows broke across their path, but an irresistible force cleft a way
for them through the sea. These believing ones saw through the spray a
dim speck of light flickering in the window of a fisherman's hut on the
shore, and each one, as he pushed on bravely towards the light, seemed
to hear the voice of his fellow crying, "Courage!" through all the
roaring of the surf; yet no one had spoken a word--so absorbed was each
by his own peril. In this way they reached the shore.

When they were a