Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/484

458 to the chances of saving his ship. As for myself, since I had always felt a greater horror of anarchy than of death itself, I found it quite impossible to hold my tongue any longer. I went up to the noisy railers, and addressed them with almost as much composure of mind as the rogues of Malsesine. I represented to them, that, by their shrieking and bawling, they must confound both the ears and the brains of those on whom all at this moment depended for our safety, so that they could neither think nor communicate with one another. All you have to do, I said, is to calm yourselves, and then to offer up a fervent prayer to the Mother of God, asking her to intercede with her blessed Son to do for you what he did for his apostles when on Lake Tiberias. The waves broke over the boat while the Lord slept, but who, when, helpless and inconsolable, they awoke him, commanded the winds to be still, and who, if it is only his heavenly will, can even now command the winds to rise.

These few words had the best effect. One of the men, with whom I had previously had some conversation on moral and religious subjects, exclaimed, "Ah, il Balarmé! Benedetto il Balarmé!" and they actually began, as they were already prostrate on their knees, to go over their rosaries with more than usual fervour. They were able to do this with the greater calmness, as the sailors were now trying an expedient, the object of which was, at any rate, apparent to every eye. The boat (which would not, however, hold more than six or eight men) was let down, and fastened by a long rope to the ship, which, by dint of hard rowing, they hoped to be able to tow after them. And, indeed, it was thought that they did move it within the current; and hopes began to be entertained of soon seeing the vessel towed entirely out of it. But whether their efforts increased the counter-action of the current, or whatever it was, the boat with its crew at the end of