Still all our powers the increasing leaks defy, We sink at sea, no shore, no haven nigh. One dawn of hope yet breaks athwart the gloom, To light and save us from a watery tomb; That bids us shun the death impending here, Fly from the following blast, and shoreward steer. "'Tis urged indeed, the fury of the gale Precludes the help of every guiding sail; And, driven before it on the watery waste, To rocky shores and scenes of death we haste; 740 But haply Falconera we may shun, And long to Grecian coasts is yet the run: Less harass'd then, our scudding ship may bear The assaulting surge repell'd upon her rear; And since as soon that tempest may decay When steering shoreward--wherefore thus delay? Should we at last be driven by dire decree Too near the fatal margin of the sea, The hull dismasted there awhile may ride With lengthen'd cables, on the raging tide; 750 Perhaps kind Heaven, with interposing power, May curb the tempest ere that dreadful hour; But here, ingulf'd and foundering, while we stay, Fate hovers o'er, and marks us for her prey." He said: Palemon saw with grief of heart The storm prevailing o'er the pilot's art; In silent terror and distress involved, He heard their last alternative resolved: High beat his bosom. With such fear subdued, Beneath the gloom of some enchanted wood, 760 Oft in old time the wandering swain explored The midnight wizards' breathing rites abhorr'd; Trembling, approach'd their incantations fell, And, chill'd with horror, heard the songs of hell. Arion saw, with secret anguish moved, The deep affliction, of the friend he loved, And, all awake to friendship's genial heat, His bosom felt consenting tremors beat: Alas! no season this for tender love, Far hence the music of the myrtle grove-- 770 He tried with soft persuasion's melting lore Palemon's fainting courage to restore; His wounded spirit heal'd with friendship's balm, And bade each conflict of the mind be calm. Now had the pilots all the events revolved, And on their final refuge thus resolved-- When, like the faithful shepherd who beholds Some prowling wolf approach his fleecy folds, To the brave crew, whom racking doubts perplex, The dreadful purpose Albert thus directs: 780 "Unhappy partners in a wayward fate! Whose courage now is known perhaps too late; Ye! who unmoved behold this angry storm In conflict all the rolling deep deform: Who, patient in adversity, still bear The firmest front when greatest ills are near; The truth, though painful, I must now reveal, That long in vain I purposed to conceal: