docet_."

Cedric, from being one of the most daring and reckless spirits of his
age, on hearing the above parley, and aware of their proximity to a
rocky and dangerous shore, became terrified. The fear of a wreck
overcame his once undaunted but now agitated frame, and a stiff glass of
grog was found necessary to support him.

At midnight (having previously been sleeping soundly, composed by the
soporific effects of the dram, lulled by the music of the rising breeze,
and the gentle undulations of the reeling vessel) he was flung several
yards from his hammock, and received a contusion on the head, which for
some time deprived him of his senses. When he had somewhat recovered,
the rocking of the vessel, the howling of the wind, and the creeking of
the timbers, told him but too truly that the old man's prophecy was
being fulfilled.

He went hastily on deck, half dressed and nearly frantic through fear,
to ascertain his opinion of the probable extent of the danger to which
they were exposed. But, alas! the old man, who had been placed at the
helm as the only person capable of conducting the vessel in so perilous
a situation, had been swept overboard by one of the early surges. He
spoke to many, but none seemed disposed to listen to him; each person
being too much engaged with his own concerns to attend to those of
others.

Every hand seemed paralyzed; the vessel without a steersman at the
helm--without a sailor to haul down a shroud, was cleaving the ocean at
the mercy of the winds and the waves!