ree
created a common character. Intelligence, at that day, was confined to
narrow limits among those who dwelt on the ocean. Even the officer was but
too apt to be one of rude and boisterous manners, of limited acquirements
and of deep and obstinate prejudices. No wonder then, that the common man
was, in general, ignorant of most of those opinions which gradually
enlighten society. Ludlow had seen, on entering the vessel, that her crew
was composed of men of different countries. Age and personal character
seemed to have been more consulted, in their selection, than national
distinctions. There was a Finlander, with a credulous and oval
physiognomy, sturdy but short frame, and a light vacant eye; and a
dark-skinned seaman of the Mediterranean, whose classical outline of
feature was often disturbed by uneasy and sensitive glances at the
horizon. These two men had come and placed themselves near the group on
the quarter-deck, when the last music was heard; and Ludlow had ascribed
the circumstance to a sensibility to melody, when the child Zephyr stole
to their side, in a manner to show that more was meant by the movement
than was apparent in the action itself. The appearance of Tiller, who
invited the party to re-enter the cabin, explained its meaning, by showing
that these men, like themselves, had business with the being, who, it was
pretended, had so great an agency in controlling the fortunes of the
brigantine.

The party, who now passed into the little ante-room, was governed by very
different sensations. The curiosity of Ludlow was lively, fearless, and a
little mingled with an interest that might be termed professional; while
that of his two companions was not without some inward reverence for the
mysterious power of the sorceress. The two seamen manifested dull
dependence, while the boy exhibited, in his ingenuous and half-terrified
countenance, most unequivocally the influence of childish awe. The mariner
of the shawl was grave, silent, and, what was unusual in his deportment,
respectful. After a moment's delay, the door of the inner apartment was
opened by Seadrift himself, and he signed for the whole to enter.

A material change had been made in the arrangement of the principal cabin.
The light was entirely excluded from the stern, and the crimson curtain
had been lowered before the alcove. A small window whose effect was to
throw a dim obscurity within, had been opened in the side. The objects on
which its lig