him;--and suddenly stopping short
in his progress toward the shore, he exclaimed aloud, "What if she
should be wooed and won by another? If she return to her native land, as
assuredly she now will, she may meet some handsome and elegant cavalier
who will succeed in winning her passions:--and I--I, who love her so
well--shall be forgotten! Oh! this is madness! To think that another may
possess her, clasp her in his arms, press his lips to hers, feel her
fragrant breath fan his cheek, play with the rich tresses of her
beauteous hair, oh! no, no, the bare thought is enough to goad me to
despair! She must not depart thus, we have separated, if not in anger at
least abruptly, too abruptly, considering how we have loved, and that we
have wedded each other in the sight of Heaven! Heaven!" repeated Wagner,
his tone changing from despair to a deep solemnity; "heaven! Oh! I
rejoice that I gave utterance to the word;--for it reminds me that to
regain my Nisida I must lose heaven!"

And, as if to fly from his own reflections, he rushed on toward the sea;
and there he stopped to gaze, as oft before he had gazed, on the mighty
expanse, seeming, in the liquid sunlight, as it stretched away from the
yellow sand, a resplendent lake of molten silver bounded by a golden
shore.

"How like to the human countenance art thou, oh mighty sea!" thought
Wagner, as he stood with folded arms on the brink of the eternal waters.
"Now thou hast smiles as soft and dimples as beautiful as ever appeared
in the face of innocence and youth, while the joyous sunlight is on
thee. But if the dark clouds gather in the heaven above thee, thou
straightway assumed a mournful and a gloomy aspect, and thou growest
threatening and somber. And in how many varied voices dost thou speak.
Oh, treacherous and changeful sea! Now thou whisperest softly as if thy
ripples conveyed faint murmurs of love;--but, if the gale arise, thou
canst burst forth into notes of laughter as thy waters leap to the shore
with bounding mirth;--and, if the wind grow higher, thou canst speak
louder and more menacingly; till, when the storm comes on, thou lashest
thyself into a fury,--thou boilest with rage, and thy wrathful voice
vies with the rush of the tempest and the roar of the thunder! Deceitful
sea--imaging the beauties, thoughts, and passions of the earth! Within
thy mighty depths, too, thou hast gems to deck the crowns of kings and
the brows of loveliness; and yet thou cravest for mo