h I compressed them would
make them burst a passage for my soul, which so longed to quit this
miserable body. But my misfortune did not end here. The storm which had
been foreseen suddenly burst upon us. The wind veered round to the south
and blew in our teeth with such violence that we were forced to quit our
course and run before it.

"It was the captain's intention to make for the island and take shelter
under its northern shore, but in this he was disappointed; for such was
the fury of the storm that although before it we had been making way
continually for two days and nights, yet in little more than fourteen
hours we saw ourselves again within six or seven miles of the island,
and driving helplessly against it, not where the shore was low, but just
where the rocks were highest and threatened us with inevitable death. We
saw near us the other galley, on board of which was Leonisa, and all its
Turk and captive rowers straining every nerve to keep themselves off the
rocks. Ours did the same, but with more success than the crew of our
consort, who, spent with toil, and vanquished in the desperate struggle
with the elements, let fall their oars, and suffered themselves to drift
ashore, where the galley struck with such violence that it was dashed to
pieces before our eyes.

"Night began to close in, and such were the shrieks of those who were
drowning, and the alarm of those on board our galley, that none of our
captain's orders were heard or executed. All the crew did, was to keep
fast hold of their oars, turn the vessel's head to the wind, and let go
two anchors, in hopes to delay for a little while the death that seemed
certain. Whilst all were in dread of dying, with me it was quite the
reverse; for in the fallacious hope of seeing in the other world her who
had so lately departed from this, every instant the galley delayed to
founder or drive ashore was to me an age of agony. I watched every
billow that dashed by us and over us, to see if they bore the body of
the unfortunate Leonisa. I will not detain you, Mahmoud, with a recital
of the tortures that distracted my soul in that long and bitter night;
it is enough to say that they were such that had death come, it would
have had little to do in bereaving me of life.

"Day broke with every appearance of worse weather than ever, and we
found that our vessel had shifted its course considerably, having
drifted away from the rocks and approached a point of the island.