Meantime, the seamen to their fellows said: "No common waves our shatter'd vessel rend, "There must be one for whom these storms impend, "Some wretch we bear, for whom these billows rise, "Foe to the gods, and hated by the skies; "Come, since the billows all our arts defy, "Come, let the lot decide for whom we die." Instant the lots amidst the vase they threw, And the markt lot dejected Jonah drew! Then thus their chief the guilty man address'd, "Say, for what crime of thine are we distrest? "What is thy country, what thy calling, say, "Whence dost thou come, what potentate obey? "Unfold it all, nor be the truth deny'd."-- The master spoke, and Jonah thus reply'd: "A Hebrew I, from neighbouring regions came, "A Jewish prophet, of no vulgar fame: "That God I fear who spread this raging sea, "Who fixt the shores by his supreme decree, "And reigns throughout immeasurable space, "His footstool earth, the heaven his dwelling place. "But I, regardless of his high command, "His mandate slighting, fled my native land, "Fool that I was, from Joppa's port to fly, "Who thought to shun his all-pervading eye! "For this the tempest rends each tatter'd sail, "For this your vessel scarce supports the gale!" The seamen heard, distracted and dismay'd; When thus again their trembling pilot said: "How couldst thou thus, ungenerous as thou art, "Affront thy patron, and with us depart?-- "Lo! for thy crimes, and not our own, we die; "Mark, how the wild waves threaten from on high, "Our sails in fragments flit before the blast, "Scarce to its station we confine the mast; "What shall we do, unhappy man, declare, "How shall we act, or how direct our prayer, "That angry Neptune may his rage restrain, "And hush once more these tumults of the main?" The seer reply'd, "The means are in your power "To still the tempest in this dreadful hour:-- "High on the sea-beat prow will I ascend, "And let the boldest of your crew attend "To plunge me headlong from that giddy steep "Down to the bosom of the unfathom'd deep; "So shall the ocean from its raging cease, "And the fierce tempest soon be hush'd to peace:-- "'Tis for my crimes this angry ocean raves, "'Tis for my sin we plough these fearful waves; "Dislodge me soon--the storm shall then decay, "Which still grows louder while on board I stay." Thus he--but they, to save their vagrant guest, Refus'd as yet to grant his strange request, And though aloft on mountain waves they ride, And the tost galley reels from side to side, Yet to their breasts they drew the sweepy oar, And vainly strove to gain the distant shore: The ruffian winds refuse that wish'd retreat, And fiercer o'er the decks the billows beat. Then to the skies the chief his prayer addrest, "Thou Jove supreme, the greatest and the best! "Because thy sovereign pleasure doth require