Aunt Dorothy's Tale, Or, Geraldine Morton (Volume 1); A Novel (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1837. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVI. Sweet, music, cease Bright eyes, all beaming With light, that makes me mad, --ah, close Give back my colder, calmer dreaming, --Give back my dull, dark, old repose. Barry Cornwall. In the month of September, Vere and his friend sailed from Constantinople with a breeze which promised to waft them quickly to England. This breeze, like most favourable gales, was not of long continuance--a storm from the north drove them far from their course towards the coast of Africa. The sea raged with such fury that every instant they expected the frail yacht would be ingulphed in the deep. The wind increased towards evening, and at night it blew so violently, that they all gave themselves up for lost; particularly as they had been driven so far out of their course that they knew nothing of the rocks, sands, or other dangers which might surround them. Occasional flashes of forked lightning disclosed the horrors of the scene, and rendered the surrounding darkness more terrific. During one flash, more vivid and of longer duration than the rest, they fancied a rock or land was near. All hands were then employed in endeavouring to change the course and avert the threatened danger. They strove with the desperate energy of despair, but death seemed inevitable: the lightning, which was incessant, showed distinctly a gigantic mass of rock ahead. All efforts seemed unavailing; the tremendous waves carried the vessel nearer and nearer the dreaded spot. There is something in the sure, the inevitable approach of death, which completely changes the whole tenor of our feelings, and love, the most powerful of all, shrinks with dismay from the stern aspect of the destroyer. We feel, while on the verge of eternity--and who is so hardened as not at such a moment to look beyon.