re
granted for a little season; for suddenly one vivid, tremendous flash of
lightning seemed to cleave asunder that dark wall, and then the wild,
liberated storm came thundering forth, shrieking and raging through the
sky, and tearing up the breast of the sea with its cruel footsteps. It
was the grandest sight I ever saw."

"I think there must have been another yet more interesting displayed on
board the vessel itself," said the sweet, low voice of Gabriel. "I
should have loved rather to watch the storms and struggles of the human
soul in such an hour of peril as you describe."

"Ah! that was very fearful," said Lilias, shuddering. "I cannot bear to
think of it. That danger showed me such things in the nature of man as I
never dreamt of. I think if the whirlwind had utterly laid bare the
depths of the sea, as it seemed striving to do, it could not have
displayed more monstrous and hideous sights than when its powers
stripped those souls around me of all disguise."

"Pray give us some details," said Gabriel, earnestly. He seemed to long
for an anatomy of human nature in agony, as an epicure would for a
feast.

Lilias was of too complying a disposition to refuse, though she
evidently disliked the task. "One instance may be a sufficient example
of what I mean," she said. "There was a man and his wife, whom, previous
to the storm, I had observed as seeming so entirely devoted to one
another; he guarded her so carefully from the cold winds of evening, and
appeared to live only in her answering affection. Now, when the moment
of greatest peril came--when the ship was reeling over, till the great
mountains of waves threatened to sweep every living soul from the deck,
and the only safety was in being bound with ropes to the masts--I saw
this man, who had fixed himself to one with a cord that was not very
strong, and who held his wife clasped in his arms, that the waters might
not carry her away. At last there came one gigantic billow, whose power
it seemed impossible to withstand; then I saw this man withdraw the
support of his arm from the poor creature, who seemed anxious only to
die with him, and use both his hands to clasp the pole which sustained
him. She gave a piteous cry, more for his cruelty, I feel sure, than her
own great peril; but with the impulse of self-preservation, she suddenly
grasped the frail cord which bound him. Then he, uttering an impious
curse, lifted up his hand--I can scarcely bear to tell it." An