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ch I shall join you, will separate us for ever--in which way, I know not--but it is destined. The priests talk of free-will. Is it free-will which takes him away from me? Would he not rather remain on shore with me? Yes. But he is not permitted, for he must fulfil his destiny. Free-will! Why, if it were not destiny it were tyranny. I feel, and have felt, as if these priests are my enemies; but why I know not: they are both good men, and the creed they teach is good. Good-will and charity, love to all, forgiveness of injuries, not judging others. All this is good; and yet my heart whispers to me that--but the boat is alongside, and Philip is climbing up the vessel. Farewell, farewell, my dearest husband. I would I were a man! No, no! 'tis better as it is." Amine watched till she could no longer perceive Philip, and then walked slowly to the hostelry. The next day, when she arose, she found that the fleet had sailed at daylight, and the channel, which had been so crowded with vessels, was now untenanted. "He is gone," muttered Amine; "now for many months of patient, calm enduring,--I cannot say of living, for I exist but in his presence." Chapter XVI We must leave Amine to her solitude, and follow the fortunes of Philip. The fleet had sailed with a flowing sheet, and bore gallantly down the Zuyder Zee; but they had not been under way an hour before the _Vrow Katerina_ was left a mile or two astern. Mynheer Barentz found fault with the setting and trimming of the sails, and with the man at the helm, who was repeatedly changed; in short, with everything but his dear _Vrow Katerina_: but all would not do; she still dropped astern, and proved to be the worst-sailing vessel in the fleet. "Mynheer Vanderdecken," said he, at last, "the _Vrow_, as my father used to say, is not so very _fast before_ the wind. Vessels that are good on a wind seldom are: but this I will say, that, in every other point of sailing, there is no other vessel in the fleet equal to the _Vrow Katerina_." "Besides," observed Philip, who perceived how anxious his captain was on the subject, "we are heavily laden, and have so many troops on deck." The fleet cleared the sands and were then close-hauled, when the _Vrow Katerina_ proved to sail even more slowly than before. "When we are so _very_ close-hauled," observed Mynheer Barentz, "the _Vrow_ does not do so well; but a point free, and then you will see how she will show her stern
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