_(For the Mirror.)_
When the unfortunate Cedric (who had imbued his hands in the blood of
another,) was endeavouring by flight to a distant land to evade the arm
of justice, there existed a belief in a supernatural being, whose
exclusive office was,
_To guide the whirlwind and direct the storm_.
It was imagined that he circumnavigated the globe in a chariot of fire
that was wafted on the wings of the wind through the illimitable fields
of aether, but that he ever kept within the bounds of our atmosphere.
His course was preceded by thunder and lightning--and storm and tempest
followed him wherever he went. He visited every climate in succession,
and had a vast concourse of inferior spirits at his command. He never
paused in his terrible career, but to witness the shipwreck of a felon,
and then only was he visible to mortal view. He was The Spirit of the
Storm!
The recollection of this personage occurred to the mind of Cedric,
accompanied with no very pleasing associations, just as the Levantine
cleared the mouth of the harbour, and was bearing a full sail before a
propitious northern gale for India.
A quick voyage had almost brought the vessel successfully to the desired
port, when an accident, fatal in its termination occurred, which we
shall endeavour to relate.
There was on board an old man who had long been in the habit of reading
the almanac, observing the changes of the wind and moon, the rising and
setting of the sun, the degree of heat or cold, dryness or dampness of
the atmosphere, the form and colour of the clouds, the rising and
falling of the mercury, and several other similar indications of the
weather, who for his knowledge in these matters, had obtained the
epithet of "weatherwise," and indeed not without reason, for although he
might sometimes be wrong in his prognostications to the no small
amusement of others, and to his own mortification; yet in general they
were pretty correct, especially of the approach of a storm in a tropical
climate.
One fine evening whilst walking on the deck, he carelessly observed,
that there would be a heavy sea gale, accompanied by rain, before
morning. The captain of the vessel, who happened to be within hearing,
cursed the poor fellow for his prediction, declaring that he kept the
whole crew in a state of alarm, and vowing that if he foretold another
tempest he would throw him overboard. The old man, who had a
considerable opinion of his own talents, calmly replied, "_experientia
docet_."
Cedric, from being one of the most daring and reckless spirits of his
age, on hearing the above parley, and aware of their proximity to a
rocky and dangerous shore, became terrified. The fear of a wreck
overcame his once undaunted but now agitated frame, and a stiff glass of
grog was found necessary to support him.
At midnight (having previously been sleeping soundly, composed by the
soporific effects of the dram, lulled by the music of the rising breeze,
and the gentle undulations of the reeling vessel) he was flung several
yards from his hammock, and received a contusion on the head, which for
some time deprived him of his senses. When he had somewhat recovered,
the rocking of the vessel, the howling of the wind, and the creeking of
the timbers, told him but too truly that the old man's prophecy was
being fulfilled.
He went hastily on deck, half dressed and nearly frantic through fear,
to ascertain his opinion of the probable extent of the danger to which
they were exposed. But, alas! the old man, who had been placed at the
helm as the only person capable of conducting the vessel in so perilous
a situation, had been swept overboard by one of the early surges. He
spoke to many, but none seemed disposed to listen to him; each person
being too much engaged with his own concerns to attend to those of
others.
Every hand seemed paralyzed; the vessel without a steersman at the
helm--without a sailor to haul down a shroud, was cleaving the ocean at
the mercy of the winds and the waves!
His sense of guilt at this moment was overpowering; hitherto (partly
occasioned by ignorance, and partly by depraved habits of life) a degree
of thoughtlessness had possessed him, which it is almost impossible to
conceive could reign in the breast of a being endued with reason. Now
indeed his eyes were open to his fate--to his earthly fate; a strange
foreboding came upon him; it was a species of instinctive horror; he
could not look beyond it. Whether there was a being who ruled the world,
or whether there was not, had never been the subject of his meditations;
yet a secret whisper intimated to him that death would not be the bound
of his hopes and his fears--of his joys and his sorrows.
He was conscious of the blackness of his crime, which indeed was of the
deepest dye, and that he had never till then experienced the arm of
vengeance. He shuddered as the violence of the tempest increased.
He had braved the seas--he had fought with the enemies of his country;
but never did fear paralyze the daring Cedric before. He fell senseless
on the deck entangled in the shattered cordage, whereby he was preserved
from being washed overboard by the mountain billows, which every moment
engulfed the vessel, threatening immediate destruction to all on board.
The murkiest cloud that ever hid the skies from the view of man, now
rode in universal blackness over the horror-stricken crew, which,
opening every pore, as though at once to overwhelm creation, poured
forth its contents like one vast sea descending to overflow another. The
winds gathered from every quarter with unparalleled fury. Thunders
rolled with that incessant clamour which pervades a field of earthly
battle; but artillery, whose dreadful note hath made the hardiest and
the boldest quake, utters with but feeble voice to that which that night
growled on the craggy shores of India. And lightnings fell, as when
Elijah called on heaven to answer him, and fire descended to proclaim
the true Jehovah's name, and hail the one true prophet!
The Levantine now struck with tremendous force against a rock, which lay
concealed amidst the swelling waters, and instantaneously disappeared,
leaving the wretched crew floating on the surface--borne on the billows!
Cedric, by the tumultuous fury of the element, was thrown on a shelf of
one of the steep rocks which form a natural barrier between the sea and
land; being recovered from his stupor, he was again awake to the horrors
that surrounded him; what had become of his comrades he knew not--he
thought not. He clung to a fragment of the precipice with the
desperation and firm grasp of madness--while every successive tide that
rolled over his head became stronger and stronger.
He counted the billows as they passed over him; he watched the receding
wave--he looked sternly at the approaching one. Time with him was fast
ebbing. The wave that was to wash him into eternity was already curling
towards him in fearful whiteness, which the glare of lightnings that
seemed to illuminate the universe showed him in all its terrors.
At the same time he distinguished a towering rock which the darkness had
hitherto obscured, but which now rose in awful majesty before him,
amidst the spray and foam of the heaving surges, and seemed a sea-god's
throne! The sublimity and magnificence of the storm were now at their
height! On the summit of the conical rock, which was reddened by the
fierce blaze of the brilliant fires that incessantly played around it,
appeared a colossal figure, arrayed in white, whose long tresses and
flowing robes streamed with the wind. The figure pointed at the hopeless
Cedric with a deadly smile on his countenance. Cedric glared wildly at
the unearthly vision. The last whelming wave approached and buried him
for ever in the foaming sea.
The spectre mounted his car, attended by an innumerable host of
tributary spirits, and was borne on the whirlwind to visit other climes.
He was the Spirit of the Storm!