d boat! But the wild son of the sea trembling hoisted the
sign of the cross and fled. Nowhere a grave! Never to die! Such is
the dreadful sentence of damnation. Oh, tell me, gentle angel of
God's, who won for me the possibility of salvation, was I, wretch,
the toy of your mockery when you showed me the means of redemption?
Vain hope! Fearful, idle illusion! There is no such thing more
upon earth as eternal fidelity, One hope alone is left me, one
hope alone which nothing can destroy. However long the seed of
earth endure, it must come to final dissolution. Day of Judgment,
end of the world! When shall you dawn upon my night? When shall it
sound, the trump of doom, at which the earth will crumble away?
When all the dead arise, then shall I pass into nothingness. O ye
worlds, a term to your course! Eternal void, receive me!" From the
hold of the phantom-ship the unseen crew echo his prayer: "Eternal
void, receive us!"

He is leaning against a rock, absorbed in sombre meditation, when
Daland, emerging from the cabin to take a look at the weather,
becomes aware of the looming neighbour. He rouses the sleep-drunken
mate. The latter, shocked wide-awake by the conviction of negligence,
catches up a speaking-trumpet and calls to the strange ship lying at
anchor close by, "Who is there?" There comes no sound in reply, save
from the echo. "Answer!" shouts the mate; "Your name and colours!"
Silence, as before. "It appears they are quite as lazy as we!" Daland
remarks, finding nothing particularly noteworthy in the unresponse,
since his own crew are asleep too after their long toil. Catching
sight of the dark figure on shore which he rightly takes to be
the captain, he prevents the mate's further investigation, and
turns his questions to this one: "Halloo, seaman! Give your name!
Your country?" The answer comes after a long pause, almost as if
the speaker had lost the habit of human intercourse and uttered
himself with difficulty. "I have come from afar. Do you, in such
stress of weather, deny me anchorage?"--"God forbid! The seaman
knows the friendly courtesies of hospitality!" cries Daland. Joining
the stranger ashore, "Who are you?" he asks. "Hollander."--"God
be with you! So you too were driven by the hurricane on to the
bare rocky coast? I had no better fate. My home is but a few miles
from here; I had nearly reached it when I was forced to turn and
sail away. Tell me, whence are you come? Has your ship sustained
damage?"--"