ntense torpor. The sky, its veil being rent asunder,
grew clear; the vapours fell down on the horizon, massing in heaps like
slate-coloured wadding, as if to form a soft bank to the sea. The two
ever-during mirrors between which the fishermen lived, the one on high
and the one beneath, recovered their deep lucidity, as if the mists
tarnishing them had been brushed away.

The weather was changing in a rapid way that foretold no good. Smacks
began to arrive from all points of the immense plane; first, all the
French smacks in the vicinity, from Brittany, Normandy, Boulogne,
or Dunkirk. Like birds flocking to a call, they assembled round the
cruiser; from the apparently empty corners of the horizon, others
appeared on every side; their tiny gray wings were seen till they
peopled the pallid waste.

No longer slowly drifting, for they had spread out their sails to the
new and cool breeze, and cracked on all to approach.

Far-off Iceland also reappeared, as if she would fain come near them
also; showing her great mountains of bare stones more distinctly than
ever.

And there arose a new Iceland of similar colour, which little by little
took a more definite form, and none the less was purely illusive, its
gigantic mountains merely a condensation of mists. The sun, sinking low,
seemed incapable of ever rising over all things, though glowing through
this phantom island so tangible that it seemed placed in front of it.
Incomprehensible sight! no longer was it surrounded by a halo, but its
disc had become firmly spread, rather like some faded yellow planet
slowly decaying and suddenly checked there in the heart of chaos.

The cruiser, which had stopped, was fully surrounded by the fleet of
Icelanders. From all boats were lowered, like so many nut-shells, and
conveyed their strong, long-bearded men, in barbaric-looking dresses, to
the steamer.

Like children, all had something to beg for; remedies for petty
ailments, materials for repairs, change of diet, and home letters.
Others came, sent by their captains, to be clapped in irons, to expiate
some fault; as they had all been in the navy, they took this as a matter
of course. When the narrow deck of the cruiser was blocked-up by four
or five of these hulking fellows, stretched out with the bilboes round
their feet, the old sailor who had just chained them up called out to
them, "Roll o' one side, my lads, to let us work, d'ye hear?" which they
obediently did with a grin.