Never is the cool and intrepid bravery that forms the basis of a seaman’s character shown to such great advantage as in situations of the utmost emergency. And to have seen the self-collectedness with which the sailors of the Scorpion, axe in hand, crept along the brig’s weather bulwark, with the strong and angry billows momentarily threatening to carry them off to the coral depths beneath, as they swept over them, one would have thought the men were all unconscious of fear—and such was the truth; for mariners are danger’s children, begotten by courage. Though fearless, they were fully aware of the risks they were running; with certain, but quick and rapid strokes, their sharp hatchets struck the thick-tarred lanyards, which, stretched to their utmost tension by the weight of the masts, quickly parted, and the tall spars losing their support, snapped short off, and toppled over into the boiling sea. As soon as the masts fell the brig righted; and much to the joy of all on board, was once more on an even keel. “Lively, men! lively, lads!” was now the order; and quickly cutting away the lee-lanyards, the brig was free from the wreck of her floating spars, and putting her before the wind, away the Scorpion flew, sailless, mastless, faster than she had ever sailed before, when, in the pride of all her lofty canvas, she had chased some flying enemy—on, on, they sped! Never until now had the haughty spirit of Clara been thoroughly humbled, or had she a correct idea of man’s entire nothingness, when compared with nature in its might and majesty. But humbled she was, when she came on deck that day and saw the tall and gallant brig, that had obeyed every motion of the helmsman’s hand, a bare, naked hull, unmanageable, and driven whither the wind listed over the angry waves, which followed fast after, and as they rose under the stern, their vast white combs would curl over the very tafferel, as if about to break on deck; and as the vessel lifted, and was for a moment out of danger, they would send the spray in showers over her, as if they were shedding tears of anger that the poor vessel had, for an instant, escaped that destruction to which it seemed she was inevitably hurrying. At last, one mighty wave, more powerful than the rest, reared its tremendous bulk far over the devoted brig’s stern, and breaking in a torrent of resistless force, swept over her deck. De Vere saw the impending danger just soon enough to throw one arm around his wife’s waist, and casting himself and her flat on deck, seize with the other a ring-bolt, and save themselves from death.