And though we feared for her the stormy autumn passage of the
Atlantic, a load was taken from every spirit when we left the Pillars
of Hercules behind us and pointed our prow straight out across the
cloud-bound ocean.
Just as we lost sight of land, we were attacked by a most violent storm,
that buffeted us for many a day, during which we saw nothing of our
fair passenger, and we learned that she was seriously ill. But never
had invalid such a nurse as she. No one knew if he slept or ate, and
no one was allowed to share his office, and no one obtruded on him the
sorrow or sympathy which all felt in spite of our engrossing battle
for life against the tempest. For though there was no change in his
appearance or demeanor, all were conscious that a deep feeling stirred
his heart. Even when we doubted if all our energies could preserve the
vessel from being dashed back upon the coast we had just left, he gave
us neither help nor heed, till in the final moment when we had given
up all for lost, he seized the helm and shot us into shelter and safety
behind the reef whereon we expected to go to pieces, through a channel
which, in the calm that followed the storm, we found it difficult to
retrace to the deep water, towing the ship with boats.
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