rose to my lips unbidden in the instancy of prayer continued to

sound in my ears: with what shameful consequences, it is fitting I

should honestly relate; for I could not support a part of such

disloyalty as to describe the sins of others and conceal my own.

The wind fell, but the sea hove ever the higher. All night the

NONESUCH rolled outrageously; the next day dawned, and the next,

and brought no change. To cross the cabin was scarce possible; old

experienced seamen were cast down upon the deck, and one cruelly

mauled in the concussion; every board and block in the old ship

cried out aloud; and the great bell by the anchor-bitts continually

and dolefully rang. One of these days the Master and I sate alone

together at the break of the poop. I should say the NONESUCH

carried a high, raised poop. About the top of it ran considerable

bulwarks, which made the ship unweatherly; and these, as they

approached the front on each side, ran down in a fine, old-

fashioned, carven scroll to join the bulwarks of the waist. From

this disposition, which seems designed rather for ornament than

use, it followed there was a discontinuance of protection: and

that, besides, at the very margin of the elevated part where (in

certain movements of the ship) it might be the most needful. It

was here we were sitting: our feet hanging down, the Master

betwixt me and the side, and I holding on with both hands to the

grating of the cabin skylight; for it struck me it was a dangerous

position, the more so as I had continually before my eyes a measure

of our evolutions in the person of the Master, which stood out in

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