out of his
eyes--and opened his lips, which displayed his teeth pressed firmly
together.

"No: though the d--l himself,--thou must down into the sea: for the
barrel will not support both."

So speaking he shook the barrel with such force--that the young man,
had he not been struggling with death, would have been pushed under
water. Both pulled at the barrel for some minutes, without either
succeeding in hoisting himself upon it.--In any further contest they
seemed likely to endanger themselves or to sink together with the cask.
They agreed therefore to an armistice. Each kept his hold by his right
hand,--each raised his left aloft, and shouted for succour. But they
shouted in vain; for the storm advanced, as if it heard and were
summoned by the cry; the sky was black and portentously lurid; thunder
now began to roll; and the waves, which had hardly moved before the
explosion, raised their heads crested with foam more turbulently at
every instant. "It is in vain," said the second man; "Heaven and Earth
are against us: one or both must perish: Messmate, shall we go down
together?"

At these words the wild devil all at once left loose of the barrel; by
which means the other, who had not anticipated this movement, lost his
balance, and was sinking. His antagonist made use of his opportunity.
He dashed at the sinking man's throat--in order to drag him entirely
under the water; but he caught only his neck-handkerchief, which
luckily gave way. The other thus murderously assaulted, on finding
himself at liberty for an instant, used his time, and sprang upon the
barrel; and just as his desperate enemy was hazarding a new attack, in
a death struggle he struck him with his clenched fist upon the breast;
the wild man threw up his arms; groaned; sank back;--and the waves
swallowed him up.

In the moments of mortal agony and conflict human laws cease, for
punishments have lost their terrors; even higher laws are then silent.
But, in the pauses of the struggle, the voice of conscience resumes its
power,--and the heart of man again relents. As Bertram went rocking
over the waves numbed in body and exhausted in spirits, all about him
hideous gloom, and the fitful flashes of lightning serving but to light
up the great world of terrors--this inner voice was not so silenced but
that he felt a pang of sorrow at the thought of having destroyed the
partner of his misfortunes. A few minutes however had scarcely passed
before he heard a g