A dull unnatural light preceded the winds, and notwithstanding the
previous darkness, the nature of the accident was fully apparent to all.
Even the untamed spirits that had just been bent upon so fierce a
sacrifice to their superstitious dread, uttered cries of horror, while the
piercing shriek of Adelheid sounded, in that fearful moment, as if beings
of super-human attributes were riding in the gale. The name of Sigismund
was heard, too, in one of those wild appeals that the frantic suffer to
escape them, in their despair. But the interval between the plunge into
the water and the swoop of the tempest was so short, that, to the senses
of the travellers, the whole seemed the occurrence of the same teeming
moment.
Maso had completed his work on the forecasts, had seen that other
provisions which he had ordered were duly made, and had reached the
tiller, just in time to witness and to understand all that occurred.
Adelheid and her female attendants were already lashed to the principal
masts, and ropes were given to the others around her, as indispensable
precautions; for the deck of the bark, now cleared of every particle of
its freight, was as exposed and as defenceless against the power of the
wind, as a naked heath.
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