in and again
veiled by a vast cloud of spray, the rain of which I could hear ringing
like volleys of shot as the wind smote it and drove it with incredible
force against the rocks past the brow of the north slope. I thought to
myself there should be power in this wind to quicken the sliding of even
so mighty a berg as this island northwards. Every day should steal it by
something, however inconsiderable, nearer to warmer regions, and no
gale, nay, no gentle swell even, but must help to crack and loosen it
into pieces. "Oh," cried I, "for the power to rupture this bed, that the
schooner might slip into the sea! Think of her running north before such
a gale as this, steadily bearing me towards a more temperate clime, and
into the road of ships!" I clenched my hands with a wild yearning in my
heart. Should I ever behold my country again? should I ever meet a
living man? The white and frozen steeps glared a bald reply; and I heard
nothing but menace in the shrill noises of the wind and the deep and
thunderous roaring of the ocean.

It was mighty comforting, however, on returning to the cabin to find it
vacant, to be freed from the scare of the sight of the two silent
figures. I drew my breath more easily and stopped to glance around. It
was the barest cabin I was ever in--uncarpeted, with no other seats than
the little benches. I looked at the crucifix, and guessed from the sight
of it that, whatever might be the vessel's nation, she had not been
sailed by Englishmen. I peeped into poor Polly's cage--if a parrot it
was--and the sight of the rich plumage carried my imagination to skies
of brass, to the mysterious green solitude of tropic forests, to islands
fringed with silver surf, in whose sunny flashing sported nude girls of
faultless forms, showing their teeth of pearl in merry laughter, winding
amorously with the blue billow, and filling the aromatic breeze with the
melody of their language of the sun. Ha! thought I, sailors see some
changes in their time; and with a hearty sigh I stepped into the
cook-room.

I started, stopped, and fell back a pace with a cry. When I had put the
figure before the fire he was in the same posture in which he had sat at
the table, that is, leaning forward with his face hid in his arms; I had
laid him on his side, with his face to the furnace, and in that attitude
you would have supposed him a man sound asleep with his arms over his
face to shield it from the heat. But now, to my unspeaka