Pearl-Maiden: A Tale of the Fall of JerusalemHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
History
Pearl-Maiden: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Historical fiction; Jerusalem -- History -- Fiction
“The north wind! The black north wind!” shouted the steersman, and the
sailors echoed his cry dismally, for they knew the terrors of that wind
upon the Syrian coast. Then the gale began to rage. By daylight the
waves were running high as mountains and the wind hissed through the
rigging, driving them forward beneath a small sail. Nehushta crawled
out of the cabin, and, in the light of an angry dawn, saw far away the
white walls of a city built near the shore.
“Is not that Appolonia?” she asked of the captain.
“Yes,” he answered, “it is Appolonia sure enough, but we shall not
anchor there this voyage. Now it is Alexandria for us or nothing.”
So they rushed past Appolonia and forward, climbing the slopes of the
rising seas.
Thus things went on. About mid-day the gale became a hurricane, and do
what they would they were driven forward, till at length they saw the
breakers forming on the coast. Rachel lay sick and prostrate, but
Nehushta went out of the cabin to watch.
“Are we in danger?” she asked of a sailor.
“Yes, accursed Christian,” he replied, “and you have brought it on us
with your evil eye.”
Then Nehushta returned to the cabin where her mistress lay almost
senseless with sea-sickness. On board the ship the terror and confusion
grew. For a while they were able to beat out to sea until the mast was
carried away. Then the rudder broke, and, as the oars could not be
worked in that fearful tempest, the galley began to drive shorewards.
Night fell, and who can describe the awful hours that followed? All
control of the vessel being lost, she drove onwards whither the wind
and the waves took her. The crew, and even the oar-slaves, flew to the
wine with which she was partly laden, and strove to drown their terrors
in drink. Thus inflamed, twice some of them came to the cabin,
threatening to throw their passengers overboard. But Nehushta barred
the door and called through it that she was well armed and would kill
the first man who tried to lay a hand upon her. So they went away, and
after the second visit grew too drunken to be dangerous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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