base, and flung the spray in showers over their edge a
hundred feet above the raging deep below. The party
had stood sometime, however, on the summit of the
rocks before the anxious lookers out could distinguish
any thing through the storm, although they strained
their eyes to the utmost in the direction from which the
sounds of the cannon proceeded. At length a light
was discernible through the gloom, and directly a dim
shadowy object, gradually assuming the outlines of a
ship flying before the tempest, started out of the misty
distance. For one moment she was seen driving up
toward the spectators. That moment, seeming to them
an age, was spent in a breathless horror that did not
admit of words. Each one involuntarily clenched his
hands tighter together, and gazed with straining eyes
on the powerless craft that was sweeping onward with
such mad velocity to the cliffs at his feet. On-on
she came, driving amid the white foam and the whither
tempest. A moment more and there was a crash, followed by a shriek that rose even above the storm, and
froze the very hearts of the listeners. It ceased and the
hurricane alone was heard.
"It is all over," said one of the listeners. " God have mercy on the souls who have gone to their last account." "Amen !" said another ; and again a breathless silence followed, during which each spectator listened to hear if there might be any survivor of the wreck. At length one spoke. "There was a cry ?" he said. "It sounds like the wail of a child." " From what direction does it come?" "Just beneath the cliffs-but now I lose it." "Hark ! there it is again." 66 Aye ! and it is a woman's voice." There was no doubt any longer that a living being was crying for succor from the foot of the cliffs, and a dozen lanterns were immediately lowered over the edge. The violence of the gale dashed them against the rocks and broke several, but the momentary light they shed on the scene below, revealed to the spectators a white figure which they knew at once to be that of a female, clinging to the rocks, and drenched with every wave. For an instant, and an instant only, by the light of a lantern lowered farther down the precipice, but almost immediately shattered to pieces, the face of the female had been seen cast upward in earnest supplication, and those who caught a momentary glimpse of it said that it was that of a young and beautiful girl. But what could be done for her ? The frenzy of the gale forbade any attempt to rescue her by descending the cliff ; and it was certain that she could not live until morning exposed to the driving snow, the intense cold, the washing of the surf, and the fierce eddies of the gale around the precipice. The spectators looked at each other in dismay. And when, in a lull of the hurricane, that cry of agony VOL. II.-3
17
came again to their ears, a cold shiver ran through their | frames. Meantime, the cliffs were becoming crowded with people, who, apprized of the wreck by the signal guns she had fired, poured forth from their houses to render what assistance was possible to the sufferers. A fire was soon kindled on the verge of the precipice, for, although at first the hissing snow-flakes almost extinguished the flames, the efforts of the warm -hearted adventurers at length fanned the fire into vigorous existence, and the lurid volume streamed up steadily into the storm, or flared, to and fro, in the stronger puffs of the tempest. As the fire flung its light across the countenances of the group which had gathered around it, there might be traced, in every face, an expression of the most anxious concern, while each spectator gazed out toward the ocean, striving to catch, through the fleecy storm, a sight of the wreck, or peered down cautiously over the edge of the cliff to discover the exact position of the sufferer below, and see whether or not any succor ❘ could be afforded her. During all this time persons had been arriving at the scene of disaster, bringing ropes, tackle, and other appliances by which aid might be ren❘dered to the crew and passengers of the dismantled ship. At length the fire, fed by renewed fuel, blazed high up into the air, and flinging its ruddy blaze far and wide around, enabled the spectators to catch momentary gleams of the wreck. She appeared to be a ship of heavy tonnage, and had ran so high up on the rocks that she stuck there as if impaled, her stern falling off seaward, while her bows overhung the boiling vortex on the land side of the sharp rock on which she lay. The racking of the sea had by this time broken her hull in two, and the forward part, crowded with living beings, fell away into the gulf below, just as the ruddy blaze of the flames enabled the spectators to catch their first glimpse of the wreck. It was a heart-rending sight. At the very moment when the beacon fire informed the sufferers that succor was at hand, just when hope began again to brighten in their darkened bosoms, they were swept away into the raging vortex, powerless and hopeless, before the agonized eyes of those who were powerless as the victims ! One wild shriek rose over all the uproar of the gale-and then a silence, if silence there could be amid that hurricane, fell on the scene. "God Almighty," said the voice of the pastor of the neighboring village, “ have mercy on their souls—surely he is the Lord, for the deep owneth his power !" That deep hush, unbroken save by this ejaculation, continued for several minutes, during which every eye was strained to detect, if possible, a single struggling form in the wild vortex below. But whether the faintness of the light forbade it, or whether the sufferers were confounded with the foam below, not a solitary living being was ever after seen of all those who had
