Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 267: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

254 JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT,. — at a tremendous rate. ‘he waves were literally; Scarcely were the words out of his lips, when the mountains high: the white foam gleamed ghastly | loud roaring of the breakers confirmed the horrible through the darkness of the night: the prospect | truth of the intelligence. A glance over the ship’s was as if a churchyard were teeming and heaving, | side showed me that we were now being hurried swelling and sinking all around—tossing its white | on through a mass of foam; and then the Athene gravestones about, like feathers upon the surface, | suddenly stopped short with a crash and with a in every direction. Durazzo again accosted me: | shock as if she had run against a wall of massive and I now learnt that we were running between | masonry rising out of the sea. The waves broke the island of Elba and Corsica—a course which he | over her: desperately did I clutch at a rope—but preferred to the channel between Elba and the | 1 missed it—and the next instant I had the suffo- main land of Italy. | cating sensation of being immersed in the water. The pumps had been rigged—the well of the | Thus washed off the deck, and left to battle with vessel was frequently sounded—and it was about | the fury of the billows, my case was even more midnight when the second lieutenant reported | desperate than when borne by the raging waters peg to Durazzo which made the corsair- | from the emigrant-ship off the Kentish-coast. I chief betake himself to the pumps. A presen- | swam with all my energy—all my power. I timent of danger hurried me thither also; and looked about me for the Athene—but beheld it I soon ascertained that the schooner had sprung a not: there was a light howeyer glimmering at a leak. It proved to be a serious one too, and the | distance—and I naturally concluded it was on pumps had now to be kept vigorously at wotk. | board that vessel. I swam towards it—if swim- Durazzo frequently descended to his cabin to ex- | ming it could be called, which at one moment was amine the chart: for, as I afterwards learnt, the | immersion, and at another being hurried along with present cruise was the first occasion on which the | racehorse speed by a billow that seemed rolling in Athene had ever been in that part of the Mediter- | to dash itself madly upon the sunken rocks—then ranean. After the discovery of the leak, I volun- | being hurled back again and nearly sucked down teered to render my assistance at the pumps; and | into the abyss by the retreating wave. Allofa though the corsair-chief assured me that he had/ sudden my feet touched the bottom: a mighty men engugh for all the purposes of the vessel, I | billow was pursuing me into that shallow water, insisted on doing that which I conceived to be my | the surface of which was however as white as if it duty. I began working with all my energy—a| were a seething cauldron. I ran on—the wave ~ proceeding which I could well judge by various | broke just behind me—on, on I went—until there evidences, raised me considerably in the estimation| was no longer any doubt that I had reached . of Durazzo’s officers and crew. land of some sort; and I sank down senseless It must have been about one in the morning | through exhaustion, just beyond the limit of the when the Athene experienced a sudden shock which } water. was felt throughout the whole fabric, making her| When I regained my consciousness, some one quiver from stem to stern, and throwing down] was bending over me; and I had an idea that a several of the crew by its violence. The vessel] voice was speaking kindly to me—but I could seemed to reel for an instant—then it passed on— | not instantaneously recognise it. At length I knew but its stern gave a tremendous bump on the| it to be Durazzo’s; and scarcely had ‘this convic- sunken rock or shoal over which it had just | tion dawned in unto my mind, when I found that gone. The man at the wheel was hurled down | there was another person near me—and this proved with terrific force ; so that he was stunned for up- | to be the youthful page. But the rest of thecrew wards of a minute,—and in the meanwhile it was |—where were they? And the gallant vessel—the ascertained that the ship’s rudder had been broken | beautiful Athene—where was it? Alas! Constan- off. The effect was immediately visible by the | tine Durazzo had every reason to believe that the manner in which she began to toss and heave/ only survivors were there grouped together in the about, with no certain guide for her course; and | persons of us three! As for the Athene, it was Durazzo, who was in his cabin examining the | gone—broken up by the breakers: it was then chart at the instant the accident occurred, came | floating in countless fragments upon the bosom of rushing upon deck. I may as well observe here | the billows—or else being dashed up in shatters what I did not however learn until afterwards, | upon the shore. And we ourselves were upon the that the shoal or rock—whatsoever it were—was island of Corsica. not marked in the chart; and therefore no fault| I knelt, and returned thanks to heayen for my could be attributed to the seamanship of the | deliverance: Durazzo and the page imitated my corsair-chief or any of his crew. _example; and when we had finished our devotions, In the midst of the grave circumstances which we bent our way towards the light which I had now surrounded us, Constantine did not for an in- | seen from the waters and which was shining at stant lose his presence of mind. His orders were about a distance of a quarter of amile. During quickly but calmly and steadily given: he had all our walk thither, I learnt that the young page his wits completely about him. A sail was set to | was indebted to Constantine for his life; and never steady the ship, and preparations were made for | shall I forget the terms of affectionate grati- rigging some substitute for the lost rudder. But | tude in which the juvenile Greek addressed his scarcely had half-a-dozen minutes elapsed after the | elder fellow-countryman. Durazzo was sombre accident, when a loud ejaculation from a man in | and melancholy: he deeply felt the loss of his crew the fore-part of the vessel rang through the gale | that had loved him so well—the loss of the ship upon our ears; and Durazzo hastily exclaimed to | in which he took such pride!’ I could understand me, “Prepare for the worst, Mr. Wilmot! We | also that the incident was a terrible blow for Con- are lost !—there are breakers !—we are rushing | stantine Durazzo; imasmuch as it had ruined in upon them !” an instant the bright hopes he had formed of COMMICOOOKSs(€6)