coat, I hastened the men out with the boat, and with two seamen and Manfrida launched it into the bosom of the ocean, and steered for the cliffs of Cromer; leaving Hasrac to keep a careful look-out at the old Abbey during the time that I should be absent. "By St. Peter, there will be some tight wrecks before the morning,' cried Manfrida, taking a quid of tobacco. I warrant that Dick has been feathering his nest already; there's a smartish breeze blows strong from the eastward; and if a vessel goes to the shore, it is all up with her, and I would not give a rotten rope's yarn for the lives of all that are on board of her. Helm-a-weather, Jack! have you a mind to float us?' "There is surely a sail at a distance,' observed I; 'pull away, my hearties, and let us hail her if we can.' "Avast, captain!' cried Manfrida, who was at this moment guiding the helm: 'there's a breaker coming that will finish our business if we don't mind and keep a sharp look-out for ourselves. Helm-a-lee, Jack; what the devil is your fool's head about?' "At this moment, lady, a tremendous sea washed over us; and I now began to feel some apprehensions that had rashly exposed my own life, and those of my companions, to the most imminent peril, without the slightest probability of effecting the preservation of Captain Singleton: nor were my uncomfortable sensations rendered more pleasing by the increased darkness of the atmosphere and the continued raging of the tempest; and, relying more on the skill and dexterity of Manfrida, who was a most experienced mariner, than on the feeble knowledge I possessed myself of the watery elements, I suffered him to guide the helm at his own discretion, and to steer the boat to whatever part of the coast he might think best for the immediate safety of our lives. CHAPTER XXXII. "She looks, methinks, of Old Acasta's line! "THOSE, lady, who have never been exposed to the fury and contending warfare of the angry elements, or never viewed the sea but in a calm, can form little notion of a tempest in its utmost violence, from which no relief is to be expected but from the timely interposition of Almighty Providence. Such a storm it was which at last reduced us in anticipation to the necessity of seeking safety even on the very rocks whose foaming aspect threatened us with immediate destruction if we approached nearer; while the surge, dashing with resist less fury, almost overpowered every effort that we made to save our feeble bark and ourselves from being buried in the bosom of the remorseless deep. Never had I seen so fearful a tempest, nor ever beheld Manfrida so intimidated; though he ha a lion's heart, the sense of the present danger har operated even upon him, and, struggling with main force for self-preservation, he exclaimed,— "Avast, Jack! keep her off the rocks! pull to the left, my hearty! lower, boy, lower! down with the sail!-gently, tack about; pull in, or by St. Peter we shall be food for the fishes, before we can cry Jack Robinson!-Now we have it-Helm-a-lee !— Bravo, Jack! weather the breaker, and we shall make to shore as clean as a whistle!' From these unconnected sentences, gasped rather than spoken by the still undaunted and vigorous helmsman, I could perceive that if we once weathered the rocks which so fearfully opposed us on every side, we might reach the land in safety, and that even our boat might be spared from the merciless waves, which now dashed over us with the most appalling violence: there were, indeed, moments in which I could neither see, nor hear the voice of, my companions, whom I expected every instant finally to lose sight of amidst the overwhelming billows, and that they would shortly share with me what seemed to be inevitable to us all-a watery grave!-But it was not so destined, lady for a few minutes brought us once more on terra firma, though greatly exhausted with the danger and exertion we had undergone, and scarcely able to drag our benumbed limbs to a part of the coast eligible for our security. The night was so dark that we could espy no habitation in which we might find a shelter from the continued pelting of the storm, dry our drenched garments, or warm our frozen limbs; for even the keg of brandy which Manfrida had stowed away in the boat was, in the hurry and terror of the moment, forgotten by us all: and how long we should have remained in this forlorn condition I know not, had not some poor fishermen, who, like us, had been exposed to the fury of the tempest, been journeying homewards. "What ho, my masters!? uttered one of them, 'belike Davy has cast you up, and given you another chance for life, as well as the rest of us!' "We acknowledged that we had just grappled our boat, and hawled it to shore; were entire strangers on the coast, and were there in search of some friendly habitation that would give us a shelter, were it only to warm our frozen limbs; that we had money to reward any one for such accommodation as they could procure for us, and hoped that, if in their power, they would not refuse it in so hard an extremity. · "To which the same fisherman replied, Why, what the devil do you mean by all this palaver? when a man knows his duty, he don't want to be put in mind of it, I promise you. The first duty is a feeling of humanity when we see a fellow-creature in distress; and the next is, to get him out of it. Now for the matter of your giving me any money for only doing what I ought to do, avast there, my jolly masters, for I will have none of it. There may be bribery on this side of the grave, but there's none on the other, remember that so here, wet your whistle, shake your feathers, and after that we'll be jogging on to where you shall have a comfortable roost, a good fire to warm your noses, plenty of victuals to fill your bellies, and a fisherman's hearty welcome into the bargain. Come, masters, stir your pegs, or belike the winds will send us back to Davy Jones* again, not quite so kindly mayhap as they blowed us to shore.' "Without offering thanks, which had already proved so offensive to these hardy sons of labour and humanity, we followed them to the cabins to which they had so unceremoniously invited us; and where we found, indeed, every thing that they had represented to be there : : namely, a good fire and a most excellent repast, prepared by their wives and daughters, and for which I could not prevail upon them to accept in exchange one farthing. "Why, what do you take us for ?' cried our host, who I perceived was the father of the two young fishermen who accompanied us to the cabin; 'Sharks, belike; but we don't live by sharking, my jolly masters! the bread we eat is honest, and therefore it is sweet: while many have twice as much, but what does that signify, when it do taste so plaguy bitter? A man might as well have so much wormwood in his mouth, as a morsel got by foul ways!' "Manfrida and I, at this observation of the honest fisherman, exchanged looks not very pleasing or consolatory to our feelings, well knowing if our real characters were once guessed at by our host, that we should stand a chance of being treated as roughly as we had before been entertained hospitably: and, to change the conversation, I inquired, with an air of seeming indifference, on what part of the coast we had so fortunately landed: to which he answered, "On the Cliffs of Cromer. You are not a gunshot from the mansion of our noble lord, the Duke * Davy Jones-A name given to the sea by mariners. |