Look at
those two clouds, sir, rushing at each other; if I--"

Ready had not time to finish what he would have said, before a blaze of
light, so dazzling that it left them all in utter darkness for some
seconds afterwards, burst upon their vision, accompanied with a peal of
thunder, at which the whole vessel trembled fore and aft. A crash--a
rushing forward--and a shriek were heard, and when they had recovered
their eyesight, the foremast had been rent by the lightning as if it had
been a lath, and the ship was in flames: the men at the wheel, blinded
by the lightning, as well as appalled, could not steer; the ship
broached to--away went the mainmast over the side--and all was wreck,
confusion, and dismay.

Fortunately the heavy seas which poured over the forecastle soon
extinguished the flames, or they all must have perished; but the ship
lay now helpless, and at the mercy of the waves beating violently
against the wrecks of the masts which floated to leeward, but were still
held fast to the vessel by their rigging. As soon as they could recover
from the shock, Ready and the first mate hastened to the wheel to try to
get the ship before the wind; but this they could not do, as, the
foremast and mainmast being gone, the mizenmast prevented her paying off
and answering to the helm. Ready, having persuaded two of the men to
take the helm, made a sign to Mackintosh (for now the wind was so loud
that they could not hear each other speak), and, going aft, they
obtained axes, and cut away the mizen-rigging; the mizen-topmast and
head of the mizenmast went over the side, and then the stump of the
foremast was sufficient to get the ship before the wind again. Still
there was much delay and confusion, before they could clear away the
wreck of the masts; and, as soon as they could make inquiry, they found
that four of the men had been killed by the lightning and the fall of
the foremast, and there were now but eight remaining, besides Captain
Osborn and his two mates.

CHAPTER FIVE.

Sailors are never discouraged by danger as long as they have any chance
of relieving themselves by their own exertions. The loss of their
shipmates, so instantaneously summoned away,--the wrecked state of the
vessel,--the wild surges burying them beneath their angry waters,--the
howling of the wind, the dazzling of the lightning, and the pealing of
the thunder, did not prevent them from doing what their necessity
demanded. Mackintosh,