Quando Dios quiere
En sereno lluve [9],
says the proverb, and while they were singing and making merry,
and dancing to amuse Floreta, suddenly the sky became overcast
and the wind sprang up, and the waves dashed against the bulwarks,
and instead of being able to row the vessel into port the oarsmen
could hardly keep their seats. Then in the midst of their fright
and horror and piteous cries for help, an ancient seaman stood up,
and having commanded silence, harangued the crew, and told them that
they might be sure the tempest was sent them because they had the
strange damsel on board; that if they would save their lives they
must bid defiance to the Infante's wishes, and take him from her and
cast her into the sea. The danger to all was manifest and terrible;
any way out of it was preferable to succumbing, so the old man found
a willing audience. The dismayed count had but time to rush in to
the Infante and tell him of the mutiny before the angry mariners had
already burst into his presence. If they were for a moment staggered
by pity at sight of the exceeding beauty of Floreta, and by Turian's
agonized assurances that the fearful sacrifice would have no effect
upon the storm, the old mariner's voice overruled their hesitation
and rendered them pitiless as the blast.
Then at his command they tore the Infante from off Floreta, to whom
he clung declaring that they should not destroy her without him,
but that he would go down into the deep with her, and they bound him
fast hand and foot and took Floreta, too full of terror to resist or
cry, to throw her into the raging sea. But before they had completed
the sacrifice, the cries of the prince, seconded as he was by the
prudent old count, ever ready to second a middle course, prevailed,
and instead of committing her to the deep, they set her on an island
past which the bark was drifting, Turian thinking in his own mind
that as soon as the fury of the storm was spent he should be able to
induce them to put back and fetch her off.
The old seaman knew what was in his mind, and he knew that the work
was but half done. He inveighed that the half-measure was useless;
he predicted that the storm would not thereby be quenched. But it was
too late to listen to him now: they were carried past the land where
Floreta was; and it was beyond their efforts to go back to fulfil his
purpose now. Meanwhile, as he had predicted, the tempest raged higher
and higher; the oarsmen were powerless: but the bark drifted nearer
and nearer home; and at last, just as a great wave dashed against it
and broke it up, they were brought just so near to land that they
could swim to shore. One young and vigorous oarsman took charge of
the old count, who was rendered more unfit for the feat by dismay
at the ill-success of his mission even than by the weakness of his
age. But none looked after the Infante, for he was known to be the
expertest swimmer of all the country round.
It was not till the hull had heeled over and gone down that they
remembered they had bound him hand and foot, and he could not
escape. And so he, who was the cause of all, alone was lost.