{93}[106] [Byron may have had in mind the story of the half-inaudible vow of a monster wax candle, to be offered to St. Christopher of Paris, which Erasmus tells in his _Naufragium_. The passage is scored with a pencil-mark in his copy of the _Colloquies_.] [107] [Stanza xliv. recalls Cardinal de Retz's description of the storm at sea in the Gulf of Lyons: "Everybody were at their prayers, or were confessing themselves.... The private captain of the galley caused, in the greatest height of the danger, _his embroidered coat and his red scarf_ to be brought to him, saying, that a true Spaniard ought to die bearing his King's Marks of distinction. He sat himself down in a great elbow chair, and with his foot struck a poor Neapolitan in the chops, who, not being able to stand upon the Coursey of the Galley, was crawling along, crying out aloud, _'Sennor Don Fernando, por l'amor de Dios, Confession.'_ The captain, when he struck him, said to him, _'Inimigo de Dios piedes Confession!'_ And as I was representing to him, that his inference was not right, he said that that old man gave offence to the whole galley. You can't imagine the horror of a great storm; you can as little imagine the Ridicule mixed with it. A Sicilian Observantine monk was preaching at the foot of the great mast, that St. Francis had appeared to him, and had assured him that we should not perish. I should never have done, should I undertake to describe all the ridiculous frights that are seen on these occasions."--_Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz_, 1723, iii. 353.] {94}[108] ["Some appeared perfectly resigned, _went to their hammocks,_ and desired their messmates _to lash them in_; others were securing themselves to gratings and small rafts; but the most predominant idea was that _of putting on their best_ and _cleanest clothes_. The boats ... were got over the side."--"Loss of the _Centaur_," _Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea_, 1812, iii. 49, 50.] [be] _Men will prove hungry, even when next perdition_.--[MS.] {95}[109] ["Eight bags of rice, _six casks of water_, and a _small quantity of salted beef and pork_, were put into the long-boat, as provisions for the whole."--"Wreck of the _Sidney_, 1806," _Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea_, 1812, iii. 434.] [110] ["The _yawl was stove_ alongside and sunk."--"Loss of the _Centaur_," _ibid._, iii. 50.] [111] ["_One oar_ was erected for a _main-mast_, and the other broke to the breadth of the _blankets for a yard_."--"Loss of the _Duke William_ Transport, 1758," _ibid_., ii. 387.] [bf] _Which being withdrawn, discloses but the frown_.--[MS. erased.] [bg] _Of one who hates us, so the night was shown_ _And grimly darkled o'er their faces pale_, _And hopeless eyes, which o'er the deep alone_ _Gazed dim and desolate_----.--[MS.]