The centre of that drear circumference,

Progressive, yet no change! . . almost it seem'd
That we had pass'd the mortal bounds of space,
And speed was toiling in infinity.

My days were days of fear, my hours of rest
Were like a tyrant's slumber. Sullen looks,

Eyes turn'd on me, and whispers meant to meet
My ear, and loud despondency, and talk
Of home, now never to be seen again, ..

I suffer'd these, dissembling as I could,
Till that avail'd no longer. Resolute

The men came round me: They had shown enough Of courage now, enough of constancy;

Still to pursue the desperate enterprize

Were impious madness! they had deem'd, indeed,
That Heaven in favour gave the unchanging gale;..
More reason now to think offended God,
When man's presumptuous folly strove to pass
The fated limits of the world, had sent

His winds, to waft us to the death we sought.
Their lives were dear, they bade me know, and they
Many, and I, the obstinate, but one.

With that, attending no reply, they hailed

Our fellow bark, and told their fix'd resolve.

A shout of joy approved. Thus, desperate now,
I sought my solitary cabin; there

Confused with vague tumultuous feelings lay,
And to remembrance and reflection lost,

Knew only I was wretched.

Thus entranced

Cadwallon found me; shame, and grief, and pride, And baffled hope, and fruitless anger swell'd

Within me. All is over! I exclaim'd;

Yet not in me, my friend, hath time produced
These tardy doubts and shameful fickleness;
I have not fail'd, Cadwallon! Nay, he said,
The coward fears which persecuted me

Have shown what thou hast suffer'd. We have yet One hope... I pray'd them to proceed a day, . . But one day more; · this little have I gain'd,

And here will wait the issue; in yon bark
I am not needed, . . they are masters there.

One only day! . . The gale blew strong, the bark Sped through the waters; but the silent hours, Who make no pause, went by; and center'd still, We saw the dreary vacancy of heaven

Close round our narrow view, when that brief term,
The last poor respite of our hopes expired.
They shorten'd sail, and call'd with coward prayer
For homeward winds. Why, what poor slaves are we,
In bitterness I cried; the sport of chance;
Left to the mercy of the elements,

Or the more wayward will of such as these,
Blind tools and victims of their destiny!
Yea, Madoc! he replied, the Elements
Master indeed the feeble powers of man!
Not to the shores of Cambria will thy ships.
Win back their shameful way!.. or HE, whose will
Unchains the winds, hath bade them minister
To aid us, when all human hope was gone,

Or we shall soon eternally repose

From life's long voyage.

As he spake, I saw

The clouds hang thick and heavy o'er the deep,
And heavily, upon the long slow swell,
The vessel labour'd on the labouring sea.
The reef-points rattled on the shivering sail;
At fits the sudden gust howl'd ominous,
Anon with unremitting fury raged;

High roll'd the mighty billows, and the blast Swept from their sheeted sides the showery foam. Vain now were all the seamen's homeward hopes, Vain all their skill! . . we drove before the storm.

'Tis pleasant, by the cheerful hearth, to hear Of tempests and the dangers of the deep, And pause at times, and feel that we are safe; Then listen to the perilous tale again, And with an eager and suspended soul, Woo terror to delight us. . . . But to hear The roaring of the raging elements, .. To know all human skill, all human strength, Avail not, . . to look round, and only see The mountain wave incumbent with its weight Of bursting waters o'er the reeling bark, . . . O God, this is indeed a dreadful thing! And he who hath endured the horror once Of such an hour, doth never hear the storm Howl round his home, but he remembers it, And thinks upon the suffering mariner.

Onward we drove with unabating force The tempest raged; night added to the storm New horrors, and the morn arose o'erspread With heavier clouds. The weary mariners

Call'd on Saint Cyric's aid; and I too placed
My hope on Heaven, relaxing not the while
Our human efforts. Ye who dwell at home,

Ye do not know the terrors of the main !

When the winds blow, ye walk along the shore,
And as the curling billows leap and toss,
Fable that Ocean's mermaid Shepherdess
Drives her white flocks afield, and warns in time
The wary fisherman. Gwenhidwy warned
When we had no retreat! My secret heart
Almost had fail'd me... Were the Elements
Confounded in perpetual conflict here,

Sea, Air, and Heaven? Or were we perishing
Where at their source the Floods, for ever thus,
Beneath the nearer influence of the Moon,

Labour'd in these mad workings? Did the Waters
Here on their outmost circle meet the Void,
The verge and brink of Chaos? Or this Earth, . .
Was it indeed a living thing,.. its breath
The ebb and flow of Ocean? and had we
Reached the storm rampart of its Sanctuary,
The insuperable boundary, raised to guard
Its mysteries from the eye of man profane?

Three dreadful nights and days we drove along; The fourth, the welcome rain came rattling down, The wind had fallen, and through the broken cloud Appeared the bright dilating blue of heaven. Embolden'd now, I call'd the mariners: .. Vain were it should we bend a homeward course, Driven by the storm so far: they saw our barks, For service of that long and perilous way

Disabled, and our food belike to fail.
Silent they heard, reluctant in assent;
Anon, they shouted joyfully, . . I look'd
And saw a bird slow sailing overhead,

His long white pinions by the sunbeam edged
As though with burnish'd silver; . . never yet
Heard I so sweet a music as his cry!

Yet three days more, and hope more eager now, Sure of the signs of land, . . weed-shoals, and birds Who flock'd the main, and gentle airs which breathed, Or seemed to breathe, fresh fragrance from the shore. On the last evening, a long shadowy line Skirted the sea; . . how fast the night closed in ! I stood upon the deck, and watch'd till dawn. But who can tell what feelings fill'd my heart, When like a cloud the distant land arose Grey from the ocean, when we left the ship, And cleft, with rapid oars, the shallow wave, And stood triumphant on another world!