Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/485

Rh the hawser was suddenly drawn in a kind of a bow toward the vessel, forming with the long rope a kind of bow, — or just like the lash of a whip when the driver gives a blow with it. This plan, therefore, was soon given up. Prayer now began to alternate with weeping, — for our state began to appear alarming indeed, — when from the deck we could clearly distinguish the voices of the goatherds (whose fires on the rocks we had long seen), crying to one another, "There is a vessel stranding below." They also said something else, but the sounds were unintelligible to me: those, however, who understood their patois, interpreted them as exclamations of joy, to think of the rich booty they would reap in the morning. Thus the doubt we had entertained whether the ship was actually nearing the rocks, and in any immediate danger, was unfortunately too soon dispelled; and we saw the sailors preparing boat-poles and fenders, in order, should it come to the worst, to be ready to hold the vessel off the rocks, — so long, at least, as their poles did not break, in which case all would be inevitably lost. The ship now rolled more violently than ever, and the breakers seemed to increase upon us. And my sickness returning upon me in the midst of it all, made me resolve to return to the cabin. Half stupefied, I threw myself down on my mattress, still with a somewhat pleasant feeling, which seemed to me to come over from the sea of Tiberias, for the picture in Merian's pictorial Bible kept floating before my mind's eye. And so it is: our moral impressions invariably prove strongest in those moments when we are most driven back upon ourselves. How long I lay in this sort of half stupor I know not, for I was awakened by a great noise overhead: I could distinctly make out that it was caused by great ropes being dragged along the deck, and this gave me a hope that they were going to make use of the sails. A little while after this Kniep hurried down into the cabin to