MacMillan's Reading Books Part 18

"And I tell you, Mr. Triptolemus Yellowley," said the Udaller, "as I would tell your master if he were here, that every man who risks his life to bring that fish ash.o.r.e, shall have an equal and part.i.tion, according to our ancient and lovable Norse custom and wont; nay, if there is so much as a woman looking on, that will but touch the cable, she will be partner with us. All shall share that lend a hand, and never a one else. So you, Master Factor, shall be busy as well as other folk, and think yourself lucky to share like other folk. Jump into that boat"

(for the boats had by this time pulled round the headland), "and you, my lads, make way for the factor in the stern-sheets--he shall be the first man this day that shall strike the fish."

The three boats destined for this perilous service now approached the dark ma.s.s, which lay like an islet in the deepest part of the voe, and suffered them to approach without showing any sign of animation.

Silently, and with such precaution as the extreme delicacy of the operation required, the intrepid adventurers, after the failure of their first attempt, and the expenditure of considerable time, succeeded in casting a cable around the body of the torpid monster, and in carrying the ends of it ash.o.r.e, when a hundred hands were instantly employed in securing them. But ere this was accomplished, the tide began to make fast, and the Udaller informed his a.s.sistants that either the fish must be killed or at least greatly wounded ere the depth of water on the bar was sufficient to float him; or that he was not unlikely to escape from their joint prowess.

"Wherefore," said he, "we must set to work, and the factor shall have the honour to make the first throw."

The valiant Triptolemus caught the word; and it is necessary to say that the patience of the whale, in suffering himself to be noosed without resistance, had abated his terrors, and very much lowered the creature in his opinion. He protested the fish had no more wit, and scarcely more activity, than a black snail; and, influenced by this undue contempt of the adversary, he waited neither for a farther signal, nor a better weapon, nor a more suitable position, but, rising in his energy, hurled his graip with all his force against the unfortunate monster. The boats had not yet retreated from him to the distance necessary to ensure safety, when this injudicious commencement of the war took place.

Magnus Troil, who had only jested with the factor, and had reserved the launching the first spear against the whale to some much more skilful hand, had just time to exclaim, "Mind yourselves, lads, or we are all stamped!" when the monster, roused at once from inactivity by the blow of the factor's missile, blew, with a noise resembling the explosion of a steam-engine, a huge shower of water into the air, and at the same time began to lash the waves with its tail in every direction. The boat in which Magnus presided received the shower of brine which the animal spouted aloft; and the adventurous Triptolemus, who had a full share of the immersion, was so much astonished and terrified by the consequences of his own valorous deed, that he tumbled backwards amongst the feet of the people, who, too busy to attend to him, were actively engaged in getting the boat into shoal water, out of the whale's reach. Here he lay for some minutes, trampled on by the feet of the boatmen, until they lay on their oars to bale, when the Udaller ordered them to pull to sh.o.r.e, and land this spare hand, who had commenced the fishing so inauspiciously.

While this was doing, the other boats had also pulled off to safer distance, and now, from these as well as from the sh.o.r.e, the unfortunate native of the deep was overwhelmed by all kinds of missiles--harpoons and spears flew against him on all sides--guns were fired, and each various means of annoyance plied which could excite him to exhaust his strength in useless rage. When the animal found that he was locked in by shallows on all sides, and became sensible, at the same time, of the strain of the cable on his body, the convulsive efforts which he made to escape, accompanied with sounds resembling deep and loud groans, would have moved the compa.s.sion of all but a practised whale-fisher. The repeated showers which he spouted into the air began now to be mingled with blood, and the waves which surrounded him a.s.sumed the same crimson appearance. Meantime the attempts of the a.s.sailants were redoubled; but Mordaunt Mertoun and Cleveland, in particular, exerted themselves to the uttermost, contending who should display most courage in approaching the monster, so tremendous in its agonies, and should inflict the most deep and deadly wounds upon its huge bulk.

The contest seemed at last pretty well over; for although the animal continued from time to time to make frantic exertions for liberty, yet its strength appeared so much exhausted, that, even with the a.s.sistance of the tide, which had now risen considerably, it was thought it could scarcely extricate itself.

Magnus gave the signal to venture nearer to the whale, calling out at the same time, "Close in, lads, she is not half so mad now--the Factor may look for a winter's oil for the two lamps at Harfra--pull close in, lads."

Ere his orders could be obeyed, the other two boats had antic.i.p.ated his purpose; and Mordaunt Mertoun, eager to distinguish himself above Cleveland, had with the whole strength he possessed, plunged a half-pike into the body of the animal. But the leviathan, like a nation whose resources appear totally exhausted by previous losses and calamities, collected his whole remaining force for an effort, which proved at once desperate and successful. The wound, last received had probably reached through his external defences of blubber, and attained some very sensitive part of the system; for he roared loud, as he sent to the sky a mingled sheet of brine and blood, and snapping the strong cable like a twig, overset Mertoun's boat with a blow of his tail, shot himself, by a mighty effort, over the bar, upon which the tide had now risen considerably, and made out to sea, carrying with him a whole grove of the implements which had been planted in his body, and leaving behind him, on the waters, a dark red trace of his course.

SCOTT.

[Notes: [1] Waggon.

[2] Oxen.

[3] Such.]

VISION OF BELSHAZZAR.

The King was on his throne.

The Satraps throng'd the hall: A thousand bright lamps shone O'er that high festival.

A thousand cups of gold, In Judah deem'd divine-- Jehovah's vessels hold The G.o.dless heathen's wine!

In that same hour and hall, The fingers of a hand Came forth against the wall.

And wrote as if on sand: The fingers of a man;-- A solitary hand Along the letters ran, And traced them like a wand.

The monarch saw, and shook, And bade no more rejoice; All bloodless wax'd his look, And tremulous his voice.

"Let the men of lore appear, The wisest of the earth, And expound the words of fear, Which mar our royal mirth."

Chaldea's seers are good, But here they have no skill; And the unknown letters stood Untold and awful still.

And Babel's men of age Are wise and deep in lore; But now they were not sage, They saw--but knew no more.

A captive in the land, A stranger and a youth, He heard the king's command, He saw that writing's truth.

The lamps around were bright, The prophecy in view; He read it on that night,-- The morrow proved it true.

"Belshazzar's grave is made, His kingdom pa.s.s'd away, He, in the balance weigh'd, Is light and worthless clay; The shroud his robe of state, His canopy the stone; The Mede is at his gate!

The Persian on his throne!"

BYRON.

[Notes: _Belshazzar_, the last king of Babylon, lived probably in the 6th century B.C. He was defeated by the Medes and Persians combined.

_Satraps_. The governors or magistrates of provinces.

_A thousand cups of gold_, &c. Taken in the captivity of Judah.

_A captive in the land_ = the Prophet Daniel.]

YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND.

Ye mariners of England, That guard our native seas, Whose flag has braved a thousand years The battle and the breeze!

Your glorious standard launch again, To match another foe!

And sweep through the deep, While the stormy winds do blow; And the battle rages loud and long, And the stormy winds do blow.

The spirit of your fathers Shall start from every wave!-- For the deck it was their field of fame, And ocean was their grave; Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell, Your manly hearts shall glow,

As ye sweep through the deep While the stormy winds do blow; While the battle rages loud and long, And the stormy winds do blow.

Britannia needs no bulwarks, No towers along the steep; Her march is o'er the mountain-waves, Her home is on the deep.

With thunders from her native oak, She quells the floods below, As they roar on the sh.o.r.e, When the stormy winds do blow.

While the battle rages loud and long, And the stormy winds do blow.