inued the renegade, mournfully), where I remained for
many hours. At last I rose in a frenzy quite indifferent as to life or
death. I went on deck, where I found my crew much in the same condition,
from their agonising thirst; but I mocked them, and laughed at the
smooth expanse of water, which, far as the eye could reach, was not
rippled by the slightest breeze, and turned my eyes up in derision to
the sun, who poured down his vertical streams of light and heat, as if
he would consume us with his powerful rays. I thought but of one
subject, I had but one desire, which was, to rejoin the object of my
adoration. On a sudden I called to mind the flasks of golden water,
which till then I had forgotten, and rushing down into the cabin, I
determined to intoxicate myself, and quit this world of disappointment
and unrealised fruition. As if fearful that the spirit of my loved
princess should have already so far journeyed to the realms of bliss,
that I might not be able to discern her when I had shaken off the
incumbrance of an earthly body, and was at liberty to pursue, I seized a
flask, and pouring out the water with a hand trembling with anxiety,
drank off a glass. I was hastily refilling it, when the gurgling sound
struck upon the ears of my companions, who rushing down like the
fainting animals who hear the music of the fountain in the desert,
poured tumultuously into the cabin, and in spite of all my remonstrances
to leave me sufficient for the completion of my desires, seized upon the
flask in my hand, as well as upon all those that remained, emptied them
in a few seconds with their copious draughts, and returned laughing and
shouting to the deck above.

The water which I had already drunk produced one good effect; it
hardened my heart for the time, and I fell into a sort of stoical
indifference, which lasted many hours. I then repaired on deck, where I
found all my companions changed into blue chalcedony--not one alive. The
heavens, too, had changed; clouds obscured the sun, the wind was rising,
and ever and anon a mournful gust blew through the shrouds; the birds
were screaming on the wing, and the water line of the black horizon was
fringed with a narrow ridge of foam. The thunder rolled at a distance,
and I perceived that convulsion of the elements was at hand. The sails
were all set, and without assistance I could not reduce them; but I was
indifferent to my fate. The lightning now darted in every direction, and
lar