The Exemplary Novels of CervantesCervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
General
The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
Spanish fiction -- Translations into English
"Night began to close in, and such were the shrieks of those who were
drowning, and the alarm of those on board our galley, that none of our
captain's orders were heard or executed. All the crew did, was to keep
fast hold of their oars, turn the vessel's head to the wind, and let go
two anchors, in hopes to delay for a little while the death that seemed
certain. Whilst all were in dread of dying, with me it was quite the
reverse; for in the fallacious hope of seeing in the other world her who
had so lately departed from this, every instant the galley delayed to
founder or drive ashore was to me an age of agony. I watched every
billow that dashed by us and over us, to see if they bore the body of
the unfortunate Leonisa. I will not detain you, Mahmoud, with a recital
of the tortures that distracted my soul in that long and bitter night;
it is enough to say that they were such that had death come, it would
have had little to do in bereaving me of life.
"Day broke with every appearance of worse weather than ever, and we
found that our vessel had shifted its course considerably, having
drifted away from the rocks and approached a point of the island.
Setting all of us to work, both Turks and Christians, with renewed hope
and strength, in six hours we doubled the point, and found ourselves in
calmer water, so that we could better use our oars; and the Turks saw a
prospect of going on shore to see if there were any remains of the
galley that had been wrecked the night before. But Heaven denied me the
consolation I hoped for in seeing in my arms the body of Leonisa. I
asked a renegade, who was about to land, to look for it and see if it
had been cast on the strand. But, as I have said, Heaven denied me this
consolation, for at that moment the wind rose with such fresh fury that
the shelter of the island was no longer of any avail to us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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