FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227  
228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   >>  
--nothing--I knew not what I said." But the iron had entered into her soul. Her heart was broken. "You had better give orders for them to look out for the Bell Rock," observed the man at the helm to M'Clise. The Bell Rock! M'Clise shuddered, and made no reply. Onward went the vessel, impelled by the sea and wind: one moment raised aloft, and towering over the surge; at another, deep in the hollow trough, and walled in by the convulsed element. M'Clise still held his Katerina in his arms, who responded not to his endearments, when a sudden shock threw them on the deck. The crashing of the timbers, the pouring of the waves over the stern, the heeling and settling of the vessel, were but the work of a few seconds. One more furious shock,--she separates, falls on her beam ends, and the raging seas sweep over her. M'Clise threw from him her whom he had so madly loved, and plunged into the wave. Katerina shrieked, as she dashed after him, and all was over. When the storm rises, and the screaming sea-gull seeks the land, and the fisherman hastens his bark towards the beach, there is to be seen, descending from the dark clouds with the rapidity of lightning, the form of Andrew M'Clise, the heavy bell to which he is attached by the neck, bearing him down to his doom. And when all is smooth and calm, when at the ebbing tide, the wave but gently kisses the rock, then by the light of the silver moon, the occupants of the vessels which sail from the Firth of Tay, have often beheld the form of the beautiful Katerina, waving her white scarf as a signal that they should approach, and take her off from the rock on which she is seated. At times, she offers a letter for her father, Vandermaclin; and she mourns and weeps as the wary mariners, with their eyes fixed on her, and with folded arms, pursue their course in silence and in dread. Moonshine Those who have visited our West India possessions, must have often been amused with the humour and cunning which occasionally appear in a negro more endowed than the generality of his race, particularly when the master also happens to be a humourist. The swarthy servitor seems to reflect his patron's absurdities; and having thoroughly studied his character, ascertains how far he can venture to take liberties without fear of punishment. One of these strange specimens I once met with in a negro called Moonshine, belonging to a person equally strange in his own way, who h
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227  
228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   >>  



Top keywords:

Katerina

 

vessel

 

strange

 

Moonshine

 

Vandermaclin

 

father

 
gently
 
folded
 

pursue

 

mariners


ebbing

 

mourns

 

silver

 

beheld

 

beautiful

 

waving

 

occupants

 

vessels

 

seated

 
offers

letter

 

approach

 

signal

 

kisses

 

humour

 

ascertains

 

liberties

 

venture

 
character
 

studied


patron

 

absurdities

 

equally

 

person

 

belonging

 
called
 

punishment

 

specimens

 

reflect

 

possessions


amused

 
silence
 

visited

 

cunning

 

occasionally

 

humourist

 
swarthy
 

servitor

 

master

 
endowed