pletion of my desires, seized upon the
flask in my hand, as well as upon all those that remained, emptied them
in a few seconds with their copious draughts, and returned laughing and
shouting to the deck above.

The water which I had already drunk produced one good effect; it
hardened my heart for the time, and I fell into a sort of stoical
indifference, which lasted many hours. I then repaired on deck, where I
found all my companions changed into blue chalcedony--not one alive.
The heavens, too, had changed; clouds obscured the sun, the wind was
rising, and ever and anon a mournful gust blew through the shrouds; the
birds were screaming on the wing, and the water-line of the black
horizon was fringed with a narrow ridge of foam. The thunder rolled at
a distance, and I perceived that convulsion of the elements was at hand.
The sails were all set, and without assistance I could not reduce them;
but I was indifferent to my fate. The lightning now darted in every
direction, and large drops of rain pattered on the deck. With the means
of existence, the desire of life returned: I spread out the spare sails,
and as the torrents descended, and the vessel bowed to her gunwale in
submission of the blast, I filled the empty casks. I thought of nothing
else until my task was completed. I strode carelessly over the bodies
of my companions, the sails were blown from the yards, the yards
themselves were snapt asunder, the top-masts fell over the sides, the
vessel flew before the boiling surge; but I heeded not--I filled the
casks with water. When I had finished my labours, a reaction took
place, and I recollected the loss which I had sustained. I descended to
the cabin. There she lay in all her beauty. I kissed the cold cheek, I
wrapped up the adored image, carried it on deck, and launched it into
the wave; and, as it disappeared under the raging billows, I felt as if
my heart, in its struggles to escape, had burst the strings which
confined it in my bosom, and leapt into the angry flood to join her.
Exhausted with my feelings, I fell down in a swoon; how long I remained
I cannot exactly say, but it was nearly dark when I lost my
recollection, and broad daylight when I recovered. The vessel was still
flying before the gale, which now roared in its resistless fury; the
tattered fragments of the sails were blown out before the lower yards
like so many streamers and pennants, and the wrecks of the topmasts were
still towing a