rough which the wild moon seemed to plunge headlong, as
if, in a dread disturbance of the laws of nature, she had lost her way
and were frightened. {150} There had been a wind all day; and it was
rising then, with an extraordinary great sound. In another hour it had
much increased, and the sky was more overcast, and it blew hard.

But, as the night advanced, the clouds closing in and densely
overspreading the whole sky, then very dark, it came on to blow, harder
and harder. It still increased, until our horses could scarcely face
the wind. Many times, in the dark part of the night (it was then late
in September, when the nights were not short), the leaders turned
about, or came to a dead stop; and we were often in serious
apprehension that the coach would be blown over. Sweeping gusts of
rain came up before this storm, like showers of steel; and, at those
times, when there was any shelter of trees or lee walls to be got, we
were fain to stop, in a sheer impossibility of continuing the struggle.

When the day broke, it blew harder and harder. I had been in Yarmouth
when the seamen said it blew great guns, but I had never known the like
of this, or anything approaching to it. We came to Ipswich--very late,
having had to fight every inch of ground since we were ten miles out of
London; and found a cluster of people in the market-place, who had
risen from their beds in the night, fearful of falling chimneys. Some
of these, congregating about the inn-yard while we changed horses, told
us of great sheets of lead having been ripped off a high church-tower,
and flung into a bye-street, which they then blocked up. Others had to
tell of country people, coming in from neighbouring villages, who had
seen great trees lying torn out of the earth, and whole {151} ricks
scattered about the roads and fields. Still, there was no abatement in
the storm, but it blew harder.

As we struggled on, nearer and nearer to the sea, from which this
mighty wind was blowing dead on shore, its force became more and more
terrific. Long before we saw the sea, its spray was on our lips, and
showered salt rain upon us. The water was out, over miles and miles of
the flat country adjacent to Yarmouth; and every sheet and puddle
lashed its banks, and had its stress of little breakers setting heavily
towards us. When we came within sight of the sea, the waves on the
horizon, caught at intervals above the rolling abyss, were like
glimpses of ano