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in his eventful career.
Maso re-appeared among the crowd, with the forced composure of one who
well knew that authority was most efficient when most calm. The command of
the vessel was now virtually with him, Baptiste, enervated by the
extraordinary crisis, and choking with passion, being utterly incapable of
giving a distinct or a useful order. It was fortunate for those in the
bark that the substitute was so good, for more fearful signs never
impended over the Leman than those which darkened the hour.
We have necessarily consumed much time in relating these events, the pen
not equalling the activity of the thoughts. Twenty minutes, however, had
not passed since the tranquillity of the lake was first disturbed, and so
great had been the exertions of those in the Winkelried, that the time
appeared to be shorter. But, though it had been so well employed, neither
had the powers of the air been idle. The unnatural opening in the heavens
was shut, and, at short intervals, those fearful wheelings of the aerial
squadrons were drawing nearer. Thrice had fitful breathings of warm air
passed over the bark, and occasionally, as she plunged into a sea that was
heavier than common, the faces of those on board were cooled, as it might
be with some huge fan. These were no more, however, than sudden changes in
the atmosphere, of which veins were displaced by the distant struggle
between the heated air of the lake and that which had been chilled on the
glaciers, or, they were the still more simple result of the violent
agitation of the vessel.
The deep darkness which shut in the vault, giving to the embedded Leman
the appearance of a gloomy, liquid glen, contributed to the awful
sublimity of the night. The ramparts of Savoy were barely distinguishable
from the flying clouds, having the appearance of black walls, seemingly
within reach of the hand; while the more varied and softer cotes of Vaud
lay an indefinable and sombre mass, less menacing, it is true, but equally
confused and unattainable.
Still the beacon blazed in the grate of old Roger de Blonay, and flaring
torches glided along the strand. The shore seemed alive with human
beings, able as themselves to appreciate and to feel for their situation.
The deck was now cleared, and the travellers were collected in a group
between the masts. Pippo had lost all his pleasantry under the dread signs
of the hour, and Conrad, trembling with superstition and terror, was free
from hypocrisy. They, and those with them, discoursed on their chances, on
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the nature of the risks they ran, and on its probable causes.
"I see no image of Maria, nor even a pitiful lamp to any of the blessed,
in this accursed bark!" said the juggler, after several had hazarded their
quaint and peculiar opinions. "Let the patron come forth, and answer for
his negligence."
The passengers were about equally divided between those who dissented from
and those who worshipped with Rome. This proposal, therefore, met with a
mixed reception. The latter protested against the neglect, while the
former, equally under the influence of abject fear, were loud in declaring
that the idolatry itself might cost them all their lives.
"The curse of heaven alight on the evil tongue that first uttered the
thought!" muttered the trembling Pippo between his teeth, too prudent to
fly openly in the face of so strong an opposition, and yet too credulous
not to feel the omission in every nerve--"Hast nothing by thee, pious
Conrad, that may avail a Christian?"
The pilgrim reached forth his hand with a rosary and cross. The sacred
emblem passed from mouth to mouth, among the believers, with a zeal little
short of that they had manifested in unloading the deck. Encouraged by
this sacrifice, they called loudly upon Baptiste to present himself.
Confronted with these unnurtured spirits, the patron shook in every limb,
for, between anger and abject fear, his self-command had by this time
absolutely deserted him. To the repeated appeals to procure a light, that
it might be placed before a picture of the mother of God which Conrad
produced, he objected his Protestant faith, the impossibility of
maintaining the flame while the bark pitched so violently, and the divided
opinions of the passengers. The Catholics bethought them of the country
and influence of Maso, and they loudly called upon him, for the love of
God! to come and enforce their requests. But the mariner was occupied on
the forecastle, lowering one anchor after another into the water,
passively assisted by the people of the bark, who wondered at a precaution
so useless, since no rope could reach the bottom, even while they did not
dare deny his orders. Something was now said of the curse that had
alighted on the vessel, in consequence of its patron's intention to embark
the headsman. Baptiste trembled to the skin of his crown, and his blood
crept with a superstitious awe.
"Dost think there can really be aught in this!" he asked, with parched
lips and a faltering tongue.
All distinction of faith was lost in the general ridicule. Now the
Westphalian was gone, there was not a man among them to doubt that a
navigation, so accompanied, would be cursed. Baptiste stammered, muttered
many incoherent sentences, and finally, in his impotency, he permitted the
dangerous secret to escape him.
The intelligence that Balthazar was among them produced a solemn and deep
silence. The fact, however, furnished as conclusive evidence of the cause
of their peril to the minds of these untutored beings, as a mathematician
could have received from the happiest of his demonstrations. New light
broke in upon them, and the ominous stillness was followed by a general
demand for the patron to point out the man. Obeying this order, partly
under the influence of a terror that was allied to his moral weakness, and
partly in bodily fear, he shoved the headsman forward, substituting the
person of the proscribed man for his own, and, profiting by the occasion,
he stole out of the crowd.
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When the Herr Mueller, or as he was now known and called, Balthazar, was
rudely pushed into the hands of these ferocious agents of superstition,
the apparent magnitude of the discovery induced a general and breathless
pause. Like the treacherous calm that had so long reigned upon the lake,
it was a precursor of a fearful and violent explosion. Little was said,
for the occasion was too ominous for a display of vulgar feeling, but
Conrad, Pippo, and one or two more, silently raised the fancied offender
in their arms, and bore him desperately towards the side of the bark.
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