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