uld gabble from."

CHAPTER VIII. _Lerici, Gulf of Spezzia_

Another night of fever! The sea, beating heavily upon the rocks,
prevented sleep; or worse--filled it with images of shipwreck and
storm. I sat till nigh midnight on the terrace--poor Shelley's favourite
resting-place--watching the night as it fell, at first in gloomy
darkness, and then bright and starlit. There was no moon, but the
planets, reflected in the calm sea, were seen like tall pillars of
reddish light; and although all the details of the scenery were in
shadow, the bold outlines of the distant Apennines, and of the Ponto
Venere and the Island of Palmaria, were all distinctly marked out. The
tall masts and taper spars of the French fleet at anchor in the bay were
also seen against the sky, and the lurid glow of the fires spangled the
surface of the sea. Strange chaos of thought was mine! At one moment,
Lord Byron was before me, as, seated on the taffrail of the "Bolivar,"
with all canvass stretched, he plunged through the blue waters; his
fair brown hair spray-washed and floating back with the breeze; his lip
curled with the smile of insolent defiance; and his voice ringing
with the music of his own glorious verse. Towards midnight the weather
suddenly changed; to the total stillness succeeded a low but distant
moaning sound, which came nearer and nearer, and at last a "Levanter,"
in all its fury, broke over the sea, and rolled the mad waves in masses
towards the shore. I have seen a storm in the Bay of Biscay, and I have
witnessed a "whole gale" off the coast of Labrador, but for suddenness,
and for the wild tumult of sea and wind commingled, I never saw any
thing like this. Not in huge rolling mountains, as in the Atlantic, did
the waves move along, but in short, abrupt jets, as though impelled by
some force beneath; now, skimming each over each, and now, spiriting
up into the air, they threw foam and spray around them like gigantic
fountains. As abruptly as the storm began, so did it cease; and as the
wind fell, the waves moved more and more sluggishly; and in a space of
time inconceivably brief, nothing remained of the hurricane save the
short plash of the breakers, and at intervals some one, long, thundering
roar, as a heavier mass threw its weight upon the strand. It was just
then, ere the sea had resumed its former calm, and while still warring
with the effects of the gale, I thought I saw a boat lying keel
uppermost in the water, and a