Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 207: what you’re looking at

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194 JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOTRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. increased, so did the alacrity of the. sailors put | sailors, who were constantly hurrying past me, I forth fresh developments,—while the commands of the captain grew more frequent. But they were uttered with calmness and self-possession, and were obeyed in the same spirit: for there was no unnatural excitement in the rapidity with “i they were executed. The hatchway lay between the poop and 4 mainmast; and in the course of a few minutes I might have reached it if I had chosen: but I) trembled at the thought of going below. I was | alarmed at the increasing violence of the tempest; | and there appeared to me some chances of safety | and escape, in case of the worst, if I remained on > deck—whereas inevitable death would await those who were cooped up in the cabins. There was so much bustle prevalent now, that no one seemed to mind me; and making my way therefore to the mainmast, I got before it,—so that the captain could no longer observe me from the point where | he stood. There I sat down upon the deck, hold- | ing fast with both hands to arope. I was not ill; but my fears increased—and I experienced all the keenness of a desperate tenacity to life. Images of the past swept through my brain: I had something to live for, persecuted though I had been: and it was my persecutor’s daughter for whose sake I thus hoped, and yearned, and craved, and prayed to live! Never can I forget the awful horrors of the scene, which was rapidly putting forth all its most tremendous effects around me. The dark clouds overhead were moving with as much rapidity as if heaven itself were one vast panorama of gloom and murkiness, laden with the storm: the sea was raging and roaring—and the foam was as white as the wing of the gulls which swept over the billows. The hurricane tore along in wild and terrific gusts: the ship—that immense ship—was tossed about like a cork. Sometimes from the eminence of the waves the land on the right, con- sisting of chalky cliffs crowned with a dark soil, was plainly visible: then down went the vessel into the trough of the sea, and nothing but the huge hills of water was visible on either side! In pursuance of the captain’s commands, more sail was taken in; and the topgallant-masts were struck. Anon one of the sailors came and insisted that I should go below,—adding, with an oath, that none of the other passengers had been allowed to come on deck, and that the hatchways were battened down. But I besought him to let me remain where I was; and as at the instant his duties required him elsewhere, he left me to my- self. I should observe that on that part of the deck which lay between the main and the fore- mast, there were two boats filled with cattle and sheep; and the poor animals sent forth plaintive sounds, as they were knocked violently against each other by every successive movement of the labour- ing vessel. There were likewise a number of hen- coops filled with fowls ; and I observed that many of those feathered beings were in a dying state,— doubtless half-drowned by the continuous breaking of the billows over them. Ramsgate had been for some while lefé on the right hand; and I knew that we were nearing the Downs,—when all of a sudden there was a cry of a leak; and every possible effort was made to rig the pumps with the utmost expedition. To the put the horrified question whether there were any danger ?—but I could get no answer. Presently however I was sternly commanded once more to get down below: but in the mingled desperation and whirl of my thoughts, it struck me that if I made myself useful, I might be permitted to re- main on deck. I accordingly flew to one of the pumps, and helped to work with a spirit and an energy which called forth a few expressions of approval on the part of the mariners. It was in the midst of this self-imposed labour—and when well nigh exhausted—that I experienced a sudden shock which hurled me flat down upon the deck ; and the next instant a tremendous wave, breaking over the ship, hurried me along with it in the midst of total darkness. Swift as only thoughts can traverse the mind when scenes like this give them their most fearful impulse, did the anguished, horrible idea strike me that I was being borne away into the deep,—when my hands came in con- tact with something which I clutched and clung to with a desperate tenacity. All ina moment the darkness in which the billow had engulfed me, yielded to the daylight again: I was on the surface of the water—but, O horror! away from the ship, and clinging to a hen-coop, which was the object that had encountered my hands and which they had so convulsively grasped. It would be impossible to deseribe the infinite despair which seized upon my soul—and yet a despair which made me cling to that hen-coop as the last straw of hope which separated me from death. The sea was breaking as if in madness over the ship. I comprehended it all inan imstant! | —it had struck upon the Goodwin Sands—those frightful quicksands into the dark depths of which myriads of vessels have gone down, and where treasures that would redeem millions of human beings from poverty and give them riches, have been engulfed. Oh! and the countless lives too that have been lost in those sands ! But it was horrible to think on! And there was I, lying across the frail but fortunately buoyant piece of woodwork that was now the only barrier against death ! The waves were hurrying me along with an in- calculable speed: the spray beat over me. When in the trough of the billows, the blackness of de- struction seemed to be closing hideously in upon me: but when upon the summit of some mountain- wave, I caught a glimpse of the doomed ship over which the furious waters were breaking. One mast was gone: the next time I looked, another had disappeared: the next time, the third no longer met my eye;—and over the ocean me- thought that the wildest screams of women and the frantic cries of drowning, despairing men, were wafted, high above the din of the tempest, to my ears. It might have been only fancy—but never- theless it struck me with the conviction of an awful, horrible reality: and though years have passed since then, yet sometimes in the visions of the night do I hear those anguished voices striking upon my brain—and I cannot think that it was only imagination at the time of the shipwreck ! The tide was hurrying me along: I clung to the bars of the hen-coop as only a human being can cling when his life depends upon such despe- rate tenacity. But my strength was failing; it COMmicboooks (C (0)