The reef in double folds involv'd they lay;
Strain the firm cord, and either end belay.

Hadst thou, Arion! held the leeward post, While on the yard by mountain billows tost, Perhaps oblivion o'er our tragic tale

Had then for ever drawn her dusky veil;
But ruling Heaven prolong'd thy vital date,
Severer ills to suffer, and relate.

For while their orders those aloft attend,
To furl the main-sail, or on deck descend,
A sea, up-surging with tremendous roll,
To instant ruin seems to doom the whole :
O friends, secure your hold! Arion cries:
It comes all dreadful, stooping from the skies!
Uplifted on its horrid edge, she feels

The shock, and on her side half-buried reels:
The sail, half-buried in the whelming wave,
A fearful warning to the seamen gave:
While from its margin, terrible to tell!
Three sailors with their gallant boatswain fell.
Torn with resistless fury from their hold,
In vain their struggling arms the yard enfold;
In vain to grapple flying cords they try;
The cords, alas! a solid gripe deny!

Prone on the midnight surge, with panting breath
They cry for aid, and long contend with death:
High o'er their heads the rolling billows sweep,
And down they sink in everlasting sleep.
Bereft of power to help, their comrades see
The wretched victims die beneath the lee;
With fruitless sorrow their lost state bemoan;
Perhaps a fatal prelude to their own..

In dark suspense on deck the pilots stand,
Nor can determine on the next command:
Tho' still they knew the vessel's armed side
Impenetrable to the clasping tide;
Tho' still the waters, by no secret wound,
A passage to her deep recesses found;
Surrounding evils yet they ponder o'er,

A storm, a dangerous sea, and leeward shore!
Should they, tho' reef'd, again their sails extend,
Again in fluttering fragments they may rend:
Or should they stand, beneath the dreadful strain
The down-prest ship may never rise again;
Too late to weather now Morea's land,
Yet verging fast to Athens' rocky strand.
Thus they lament the consequence severe,
Where perils unallay'd by hope appear:

Long in their minds revolving each event,
At last to furl the courses they consent;
That done, to reef the mizen next agree,
And try beneath it sidelong in the sea.

Now down the mast the sloping yard declin’d, Till by the jears and topping-lift confin'd, The head, with doubling canvass fenc'd around, In balance, near the lofty peak they bound: The reef enwrapt, th' inserted knittles tied; To hoist the shorten'd sail again they hied: The order given, the yard aloft they sway'd, The brails relax'd, th' extended sheet belay'd: The helm its post forsook, and, lash'd a-lee, Inclin'd the wayward prow to front the sea.

As yet, amid this elemental war, That scatters desolation from afar, Nor toil, nor hazard, nor distress, appear To sink the seamen with unmanly fear: Tho' their firm hearts no pageant honour boast, They scorn the wretch that trembles at his post; Who from the face of danger strives to turn, Indignant from the social hour they spurn: Tho' now full oft they felt the raging tide In proud rebellion climb the vessel's side,

No future ills unknown their souls appal:
They know no danger, or they scorn it all!
But e'en the generous spirits of the brave,
Subdued by toil, a friendly respite crave;
A short repose alone their thoughts implore,
Their harrass'd powers by slumber to restore.

Far other cares the master's mind employ;
Approaching perils all his hopes destroy.
In vain he spreads the graduated chart,
And bounds the distance by the rules of art;
In vain athwart the mimic seas expands
The compasses to circumjacent lands:
Ungrateful task! for no asylum traced,
A passage open'd from the wat'ry waste:
Fate seem'd to guard, with adamantine mound,
The path to every friendly port around.
While Albert thus, with secret doubts dismay'd,
The geometric distances survey'd,

On deck the watchful Rodmond cries aloud,
Secure your lives! grasp every man a shroud!

Roused from his trance, he mounts with eyes aghast;
When o'er the ship, in undulation vast,

A giant surge down-rushes from on high,
And fore and aft dissever'd ruins lie.

As when, Britannia's empire to maintain,

Great Hawke descends in thunder on the main,

Around the brazen voice of battle roars,
And fatal lightnings blast the hostile shores;
Beneath the storm their shatter'd navies groan,
The trembling deeps recoil from zone to zone:
Thus the torn vessel felt th' enormous stroke,
The boats beneath the thundering deluge broke;
Forth-started from their planks the bursting rings,
Th' extended cordage all asunder springs;
The pilot's fair machinery strews the deck,
And cards and needles swim in floating wreck;
The balanc'd mizen, rending to the head,
In streaming ruins from the margin fled;
The sides convulsive shook on groaning beams,
And, rent with labour, yawn'd the pitchy seams.
They sound the well, and, terrible to hear!
Five feet immers'd along the line appear!
At either pump they ply the clanking brake,
And, turn by turn, th' ungrateful office take:
Rodmond, Arion, and Palemon, here,
At this sad task all diligent appear:

But all in vain! for now the sounding cord,
Updrawn, an undiminish'd depth explor❜d:
Nor this severe distress is found alone;

The ribs, opprest by pond'rous cannon, groan:
Deep rolling from the wat❜ry volume's height,
The tortur'd sides seem bursting with their weight.