intimated the promptitude with which the command was treated.
R---- and P---- had already returned to the deck; but I remained below
doing what little offices I could to assuage the anguish of King; and he
seemed to desire my presence for no other service than to give him
water; for during the paroxysms of his complaint, he ceased not saying,

"Water! Sir; water!" and would snatch the glass from me, and drink with
avidity.

I crept on deck to see our situation and that of the vessel. Thick
clouds, black and rolling one over the other in their headlong flight,
overcast the sky, and the stars no longer shone in the firmament. The
mountains that had been so distinctly defined when I looked on them two
hours before, seemed now shapeless mounds of earth swelling towards
Heaven, and adding to the obscurity of night; and when the lightning
gleamed in broad sheets, their great forms hanging over us, had, from
the motion of the vessel, the appearance of falling on us. Every instant
the strength of the wind became mightier, the thunder roared louder, and
before the echo had made response from the nearest mountain-top, the
lightning leaped downward from the zenith into the valleys, and darted,
while it hissed, from tree to tree. The sea began to rise, and the
cutter, that had hitherto lain so placidly on the smooth water, heaved,
and her larger spars creaked to the growing scud.

We had now opened the North Sea, and the pilots were desirous of getting
under an island that lay about two miles from the mouth of the Fiord,
before the gale reached its utmost fury; for by doing so, the vessel
would then be perfectly secure in the quiet waters of another Fiord that
flowed thence to the walls of Bergen. In the effort to accomplish this,
the vessel was exposed to the whole drift of the Northern Ocean; and the
wind having settled down to S.W. by W., blew directly in our faces, and
placed a fearful shore on our lee. Having looked around me, as well as
the pitchy darkness would allow, and ascertaining from the King's Pilot,
as he was called, a seaman as courageous as he was skilful, the
dangerous bearing of the land, and the object he desired to gain, I took
my leave of the deck, and made more room for those who could be
serviceable in the governance of the vessel. A deafening peal of thunder
shook down a second deluge, and driven to seek shelter, R---- and P----
came to the cabin immediately after me.

Taking each a seat on the sofas, we